There’s a new tire on the market and it has already won the Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award. The tire, produced by the manufacturer Yokohama in Japan, is made with 80% non-petroleum material. To displace the petroleum used in every tire on the market, the people at Yokohama have discovered that one can make vulcanized rubber, which is necessary for the traction of tires, by using orange oil instead of petroleum. The tire is called the Super E-spec and the plan is to add these newer, greener tires to Toyota’s line of hybrid, the Prius.
The philosophy behind using orange peels instead of petroleum is the same that allows plastics to be made from corn starch and vegetable oil, which is why it is considered to be more sustainable. However, it is unclear how well the material will biodegrade, and Yokohama scientists have not addressed this facet of the process, but one can feel safe to assume that oil based tires will not be the nuisance that normal tires have been.
Rubber tires can burn at landfills for months, and they are hard to extinguish. There is no message from Yokohama as to whether their product will biodegrade over time. This is not the biggest of problems, as their fate can match that of the tires on your car, which can be chopped up and used as playground surfacing or additives to the soil in sports turf.
