Continental presented in September 2021 for the first time the “ContiRe.Tex” technology, which uses polyester yarn obtained from used PET bottles, without any intermediate chemical step and which cannot be recycled in any other way.
Within a special recycling process, the bottles are sorted and mechanically cleaned, after removing the caps. After mechanical grinding, PET is transformed into granules and, finally, into polyester yarn. Thanks to this technology, it is estimated that 40 PET bottles are recycled for each set of tires.
This new high-performance material will completely replace the conventional polyester present in the tire carcass, and will be used for the first time in five sizes selected for the Continental “PremiumContact 6” and “EcoContact 6” summer tires and for the tire suitable for all seasons “AllSeasonContact”,
All the tires with ‘ContiRe.Tex’ technology that are produced come from the Continental factory in Lousado (Portugal) and are branded with a special identifying logo on the side that reads “Contains Recycled Material”.
PET polyester yarn is not new as a material used for tire manufacturing. mainly intended for cars and light trucks. Among its advantages, it should be noted that textile ropes absorb the forces of the tire’s internal pressure and remain dimensionally stable even under high loads and temperatures.