Driving sustainability with carbon-neutral tyres

The innovative design is made from algae and post-consumer waste

Spotted: The tyre industry has a big role to play in guiding the transportation sector towards a low-carbon future. That’s why Norwegian company retyre is reinventing the wheel, with what it claims is the world’s first carbon-neutral tyre.

Unveiled at Eurobike 2024 earlier this month, ReTyre’s innovative concept design uses 100 per cent reclaimed materials, including recycled fishing nets that are recovered from the ocean and bloomed algae. This way, it’s able to reduce the tyre’s global warming potential by up to 82 per cent compared to conventional tyres.

When algal blooms go untreated, they emit methane, release toxins, and deplete oxygen levels in the water, harming surrounding plants and marine creatures. To prevent that, ReTyre harvests algae blooms for the tread, helping to restore aquatic ecosystems in oceans and lakes. For the beads and puncture protection, the company uses para-aramid (Kevlar) fibres recycled from used body armour in a closed-loop process. The tyre also incorporates post-consumer recyclables from local waste streams.

Conventional rubber tyres fall short on sustainability, largely due to their inability to be remoulded into new tyres, with most recycling efforts involving the tyre being burnt to produce energy in a process that releases toxic pollutants. By contrast, ReTyre has designed its tyres to embrace a circular economy, so that worn tyres can be repurposed into new ones. Adding to this eco-friendly loop, the versatile bio-based elastomers in ReTyre’s tyres can be easily repurposed for use in various other industries.

At Eurobike, ReTyre also showcased other tyre designs for urban cyclists, which are also low-carbon and bio-based. The company also develops tyres for other applications, including prams and bike trailers, with wheels for car and motorbikes in the works.

Written By: Georgia King