Michelin is creating an innovative and interactive presence at the 2021 IAA Mobility Event in Munich. To highlight its plans to make its tyres as sustainable as possible, six Michelin teams will be roaming through downtown Munich during the event, encouraging people to recycle plastic waste.
The teams, made up of German Michelin employees from across the business, will join the world-famous Michelin Man in raising awareness that today’s discarded container will become a valuable resource for tomorrow’s tyres.
As early as 2024, the first MICHELIN tyres containing recycled yogurt cups and PET bottles will hit the road, with the potential for around four billion PET bottles to be recycled every year as raw material for tyres. The teams at the IAA are aiming to collect enough plastic for the first 100 tyres during the event.
“In one tyre, we can process up to 143 yogurt cups and around 12.5 PET bottles* with the high-tech recycling processes. We want to address society’s plastic problem and offer solutions,” says Anish K. Taneja, CEO Michelin Europe North.
Visitors to the Michelin booth on Munich’s Königsplatz can also find out about the rest of the recycling journey. The “Michelin REGEN’Lab” explains the recycling processes and demonstrates how raw materials for new tyres are obtained from wood, PET plastic or packaging waste.
By 2030 Michelin is aiming to manufacture its premium tyres using 40 percent sustainable materials, such as natural rubber or sunflower oil, and to produce its tyres using entirely from sustainable raw materials by 2050.
Michelin will also be exhibiting its vision of the future of recycled tyres in Munich: the MICHELIN Vision Concept. This is made of 100 percent recyclable sustainable material, 3D-printed and puncture resistant, while there will also be an electric vehicle running on prototype MICHELIN Uptis tyres – the vision made real and also due to go into production in 2024.
