Continental says tyres containing polyester made from recycled PET bottles are now available to all dealers in Europe. Continental has brought the so-called ContiRe.Tex technology, which can completely replace the conventionally polyester in the tyre carcass, into series production in April 2022. Currently, the premium tyre manufacturer offers three models in five dimensions each with polyester made from recycled PET bottles: the PremiumContact 6, the EcoContact 6 and the all-season tyre AllSeasonContact.
In September 2021, Continental unveiled the specially developed ContiRe.Tex technology for the first time. It uses polyester yarn, which is obtained from used PET bottles without any intermediate chemical steps and not recycled in any other way. This makes the technology much more efficient than other standard methods for processing PET bottles into high-performance polyester yarns. The bottles used for the technology come exclusively from regions without a closed recycling loop. A set of standard passenger car tyres uses the material from around 40 recycled PET bottles. Tyres with ContiRe.Tex technology have a special logo on the sidewall (“Contains Recycled Material”).