EcoVadis has placed VMI among the top 1% of companies it has assessed globally, based on performance in areas including environmental impact, ethics, labor and human rights, and sustainable procurement. The Platinum Medal follows VMI’s Gold rating in 2025.

“Receiving the EcoVadis Platinum Medal is a proud milestone for VMI and we share this medal with all our employees around the world,” said Harm Voortman, the president and CEO of VMI Group. “This recognition reflects the progress we have made in integrating sustainability into every aspect of our business. From designing more sustainable machines together with our customers to working closely with our suppliers, we continue to improve the sustainability of both our products and our operations.

Continue reading VMI receives EcoVadis Platinum sustainability rating at Tire Technology International.

Continental has achieved 84 out of a possible 100 points in the latest EcoVadis Sustainability Rating, receiving a gold medal for its performance and ranking among the top 5% of companies assessed by EcoVadis worldwide.

The assessment covers four themes: environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. This was the first time Continental was assessed in the ‘manufacture of rubber tires and tubes’ industry category, having previously been rated in the manufacture of parts and accessories category.

Jorge Almeida, head of sustainability for Continental’s Tires sector, said, “Even in our new industry category, with its different assessment criteria, we continue to rank among the top 5% of companies worldwide.

Continue reading EcoVadis awards Continental gold sustainability rating at Tire Technology International.

A new partnership has been announced that is advancing a tire-to-tire circular economy initiative in Europe, driving the development of an industrial ecosystem designed to increase the use of recycled materials derived from end-of-life and scrap tires.

Pirelli, Pyrum, Synthos and BASF are working together on a process that draws on end-of-life tires collected across Germany, from some driver retail outlets and motorsport activities, as well as scrap tires collected from Pirelli’s Breuberg plant. These are processed through an industrial chain designed to maximize their inner value, converting them into secondary raw materials, including synthetic rubber, certified under the ISCC Plus scheme.

Continue reading Pirelli, Pyrum, Synthos and BASF launch ‘tire-to-tire’ circularity project at Tire Technology International.

The Tire Industry Project (TIP) has announced that the Thailand Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (TATMA) has joined as its ninth affiliate member, extending TIP’s network into Southeast Asia.

Affiliate members support TIP in delivering on its mission to anticipate, understand and address global environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues relevant to the tire industry and its value chain.

Thailand is the world’s second-largest tire-exporting country by volume, which TIP cites as a reason for the partnership’s relevance to sustainability efforts. TIP also notes an emerging circular economy ecosystem around end-of-life tire management in the country, which it says creates opportunities for knowledge exchange with TATMA on circularity topics.

Continue reading Thailand tire manufacturers association becomes latest TIP affiliate member at Tire Technology International.

Continental has announced that it is to build its first company-owned wind farm near its tire plant in Korbach, Germany. Together with existing photovoltaic systems, the three planned wind turbines will cover around two-thirds of the tire plant’s electricity demand.

The turbines can generate around 55GWh of electricity per year – enough to supply around 15,000 households, based on average annual consumption of around 3,500kWh. Continental plans to invest a mid-double-digit million-euro amount in the project. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2026, with commissioning planned for approximately a year and a half later.

Dr Bernhard Trilken, head of manufacturing and logistics in Continental’s Tires group sector, said, “Having our own wind turbines near the plant will give us more predictable energy costs and reduce our exposure to volatile energy markets – key factors for competitive tire production in Germany.

Continue reading Continental to build first wind farm near Korbach plant at Tire Technology International.

Hankook Tire has hosted a kick-off event for the ‘Development of Tire Manufacturing Technologies Using Sustainable Materials’ project carried out out as part of South Korea’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE)’s 2026 Environmental Technology Development Program.

The initiative seeks to accelerate Korea’s circular economy by securing high-quality recycled raw materials from end-of-life tires and advancing their commercialization in tire manufacturing. It consists of two key workstreams: the development of technologies for producing premium recycled feedstock from waste tires; and the establishment of tire manufacturing technologies using sustainable materials.

Participation in the national project expands existing private-sector research into a broader collaborative ecosystem involving industry, academia and research institutions.

Continue reading Korean consortium launches project to advance sustainable tire manufacturing and circular economy at Tire Technology International.

With sustainability becoming an increasingly important focus for the tire industry, manufacturers are exploring ways to improve circularity across the sector. In response, the ISCC Plus pilot project aims to develop industrial ecosystems that recover and process waste materials for reintegration into tire manufacturing, supporting more sustainable production across the supply chain.

Pirelli has announced that it has actively supported and participated in the ISCC Plus pilot to add recycled steel to the ISCC Plus materials list, working alongside Xingda, a strategic supplier and manufacturer of rubber reinforcement materials.

As part of the initiative, Pirelli contributed to the development of technical requirements and sustainability guidelines, supporting Xingda and its upstream suppliers throughout the ISCC Plus certification process.

Continue reading Pirelli supports ISCC Plus initiative to introduce recycled steel into tire manufacturing at Tire Technology International.

Chemicals company Orion has announced it is producing circular carbon black at its ISCC Plus-certified plant in the Chinese eastern coastal city of Qingdao.

The facility is making three grades of circular carbon black, Ecorax Circular 200, 210 and 215, from tire pyrolysis oil (TPO). Ecorax 200 is a hard black suitable for tires, while the 210 and 215 grades can be used for tires and mechanical rubber goods (MRG).

“This new capability in China marks a key step in offering circular carbon black grades globally,” said Orion CEO Corning Painter. “The product line extension gives us greater flexibility to meet growing demand for circular products, while maintaining the performance, consistency and quality our customers expect.”

Last year, Orion scaled up its circular capabilities in Europe, launching large volume production of Ecorax Circular 200 and 210 – both made from TPO – through a commercial reactor in Jasło, Poland.

Continue reading Orion launches circular carbon black production in China at Tire Technology International.

Pirelli North America has launched its first closed-loop tire recycling initiative as part of a strategy to increase the use of recycled and bio-based materials in its products.

The initiative focuses on recovering scrap tires generated during the manufacturing process in North America. The materials from these are collected and processed by Bolder Industries using pyrolysis technology to produce ISCC Plus-certified BolderBlack recovered carbon black (rCB), which Pirelli then reuses in the North American production of new tires.

The project is part of a broader Pirelli plan that will also involve additional facilities, with the objective of creating industrial ecosystems capable of valorizing waste by producing recovered materials to be reintegrated into tire manufacturing across the group’s production network.

Continue reading Internal recycling model drives Pirelli’s circular manufacturing approach at Tire Technology International.

Chemical companies Unibio and BioVerde Tech have announced a strategic collaboration to develop biomanufacturing processes for the production of sustainable chemicals.

Under the agreement, BioVerde will use Unibio’s U-Loop vertical loop gas fermentation technology platform together with BioVerde’s genetically engineered strains of Methylococcus capsulatus. The collaboration aims to convert methane into a range of value-added chemical products through advanced microbial fermentation.

Initial development efforts will focus on intermediates – molecular entities or compounds formed during a multi-step chemical reaction that are then consumed to produce the final product, acting as bridges between reactants and products – relevant to the synthetic rubber value chain, including pathways toward bio-based butadiene, a key building block used in both synthetic rubber and engineering plastics such as ABS.

Continue reading Unibio and BioVerde co-develop methane-based manufacturing processes for sustainable chemical intermediates at Tire Technology International.