Michelin’s Race Tire Recycling with Enviro
Recently, Michelin announced another cooperation with Enviro. Michelin will start a new cooperation with Enviro Systems A.B. (Enviro) from Scandinavia to recycle carbon black and oil products from Michelin's used racing tires for recycling and produce tire products with a higher proportion of sustainable materials.
As for why racing tires are recycled for thermal cracking and recycling, Enviro CEO Fredrik Emilson said: "Racing tires represent the pinnacle of tire technology. Enviro's participation in providing circular solutions for racing tires of the world's largest tire manufacturers is a sign of the quality that our technology can achieve."
This seems to mean that these recycled carbon black and tire oils are likely to be used to produce racing tires. Michelin's racing tire department introduced the details of the new cooperation at a press conference held at the Paul Ricard Circuit in Le Castellet in southern France.
Since the beginning of 2025, Enviro has been conducting related trials for the thermal cracking and recycling of Michelin racing tires at the Enviro plant in Uddevalla, Sweden.
In 2023, the plant was recognized by the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) program for recycling oil and carbon black. This also means that in 2023, the products of Enviro's Swedish plant have been certified as sustainable based on the total energy consumption used to produce the product throughout the value chain.
In 2025, Michelin launched a new sustainable tire product cooperation with Enviro at the plant, and plans to achieve the goal of "gradually introducing Michelin racing tire recycling" in 2026.
Michelin racing tires contain special high-performance compounds and are equipped with racing cars in the Le Mans Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship (WEC). Michelin has been the exclusive tire supplier in this class since 2019.
In fact, this is not the first time Michelin has used motorsport to focus on the development of its sustainable tire products-Michelin plans to achieve a 100% sustainable material tire goal by 2050. In order to better use racing events to promote the progress of its sustainable tire products, Michelin created the tag #WeRaceForChange to promote its efforts.
In addition, Michelin has used Enviro's recycled carbon black in its racing tires. Enviro said that this move has taken Michelin's sustainable tire product process one step further, creating a circular closed-loop supply system.
Enviro said that it has worked closely with Michelin to develop thermal cracking technology, which is essential to creating a technology that can recycle raw materials with the right quality and the right characteristics. The cooperation between Enviro and Michelin began in 2020, when the two companies established a strategic partnership. Since then, Michelin has become Enviro's single largest shareholder.
In February and May 2024, Enviro received approximately US$4.9 million (RMB 35.53 million) and US$5 million (RMB 36.08 million) in financial support from its joint venture partners twice to cover part of the cost of building a comprehensive recycling plant in Uddevalla, Sweden.
In 2025, the plant will be put into use. Among them, the construction of the plant started in February, and the plant carried out important external construction and pipe rack installation in March. From the end of March to the beginning of April, production equipment, including the reactors needed for thermal cracking, began to be installed. It is reported that the planned capacity of the plant is to recycle 34.5 thousand tons of waste tires per year - this is equivalent to recycling 40% of Sweden's waste tires each year.
In 2026, its raw material source will include Michelin racing tires. Enviro said it has signed a long-term binding agreement to deliver 2 billion Swedish kronor (1.335 billion yuan) worth of recycled carbon black and oil from the plant.
