Continental’s tires containing polyester made from recycled PET bottles are now available at all points of sale in Europe. The manufacturer launched series production of the so-called ContiRe.Tex technology in April this year, which can completely replace conventional polyester in the tire carcass. Currently, the premium tire manufacturer offers three models in five dimensions each with polyester made from recycled PET bottles: the PremiumContact 6 and EcoContact 6 summer tires and the AllSeasonContact all-season tire.

Continental first presented the ContiRe.Tex technology in September 2021, which uses polyester yarn for the manufacture of the tire carcass and which is obtained from used plastic (PET) bottles without any intermediate chemical steps, in addition not be recycled in any other way. This makes the technology much more efficient than other standard methods of transforming these popular bottles into high performance polyester yarns. The bottles used for this technology come exclusively from regions without a closed recycling loop. A set of standard passenger car tires uses the material from about 40 recycled PET bottles. Tires with ContiRe.Tex technology carry a special logo on the sidewall (CRM ‘Contains Recycled Material’) for better identification by consumers.