Pirelli is making a push into green biotyres 

Italy’s Pirelli has launched its first full production tyres that are mainly made from bio-based and recycled materials. 

Jaguar Land Rover was behind the initiative, asking Pirelli for green-sourced P Zero tyres for its Range Rovers. Now the tyre, which is 70 per cent based on recycled products, has been awarded the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for natural rubber.

The new P Zeroes will be available at first on 22-inch rim options for Range Rover vehicles before becoming available to the public. They feature an FSC symbol and markings that indicate the total bio-based and recycled materials content.

Components include recycled steel, rice-husk-derived silica, and carbon black obtained from recycled tyres. Other key items include bio-circular polymers derived from cooking and pyrolysis oils, and plant-based bio-resins as binders. All of these materials are third-party certified by Bureau Veritas. This firm is a global leader in testing, inspection and certification.

The recycled steel is scrap melted down to create raw steel for re-use. It goes into the belt plies of the tyre’s inner structure. Certified, renewable natural rubber is used to form a base for the other compounds used in the tyre-making process.

The rice-husk-derived silica is a byproduct from processing rice, while the recycled-tyre-based carbon black is obtained from discarded tyres that are melted down. Cooking oil or pyrolysis oils replace fossil-based petroleum oil. Meanwhile, plant-based plasticisers form the bio-resins that bind everything together.

Pirelli has long been moving towards 100 per cent renewables for its tyres. It developed its first full-natural-rubber-certified P Zero tyres in 2021.