Eco Factor: Tires made from oil extracted from orange peels.
Popular tire manufacturer Yokohama has tried to make its tires green by substituting orange oil extracted from orange peels as the primary ingredient to make vulcanized rubber. The new green tire, known as Super E-Spec, will initially be launched for hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius.
The company states that the new tire is made by mixing natural rubber and orange oil to drastically reduce the amount of petroleum used in the process, without having any effect on the overall performance of the tire. Apart from being green itself, this new tire improves fuel efficiency via a 20% reduction in rolling resistance.
Yokohama is definitely trying to green the tire manufacturing business with this new process. However, the company still has to release the environmental impact of these tires once they’re disposed of. Conventional tires can burn for months in a landfill and in the process emit a large amount of toxic gases into the atmosphere, but Yokohama’s tires are made to be green, and we expect them to have better credentials when disposed.
Via: Earth911
