ContiRe.Tex technology

With its ContiRe.Tex technology, which aims to make the manufacturing, use, and recyclability of its tires more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, Continental just got one step closer to the goal of tires made from 100% recycled or sustainable materials.

“Tex” is an abbreviation for textiles, in this case, to denote a high-quality polyester yarn produced from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, which could’ve otherwise ended up in garbage incinerators, oceans, or landfills.

The yarn is mechanically produced without any intermediate chemical steps. The process entails manually separating bottles from the caps, followed by mechanically cleaning, shredding, and processing the plastic into granulate, which is finally spun into the polyester yarn used to make our sustainable tires.

We ensure that the PET bottles are gathered exclusively from regions without a closed recycling loop. A set of standard passenger car tires utilizes material from 40 recycled PET bottles (ContiRe.Tex utilizes between 9 to 15 PET bottles per tire, depending on the tire size).

• Continental consumes 55% less water and 17% less energy than the industry average of per metric ton of tires produced
• We plan to further reduce this by another 20% by 2030
  
• Since the end of 2020, grid electricity purchased for our tire production sites worldwide is carbon-neutral thanks to the procurement of energy attribute certificates
  
• Continental is a member of the RE 100 initiative that fosters renewable energy
• Tire production by Continental will be carbon neutral by 2040
• We aim to be completely climate-neutral along our entire value chain by 2050