Driving innovative technologies aligned with its vision for sustainable mobility, Pirelli has launched the "Tyre-to-Tyre" circular economy initiative to scale the use of recycled materials recovered from end-of-life tires. Coordinated by Pirelli alongside international partners, the project supports the development of an industrial ecosystem across Europe designed to maximize the value of scrap tire components.
The recovery process begins with end-of-life tires collected from Driver retail outlets across Germany, motorsport activities, and Pirelli’s Breuberg manufacturing plant. These scrap tires are processed through a structured industrial chain into ISCC PLUS-certified secondary raw materials, including synthetic rubber. This certification ensures full traceability across the entire value chain, allowing circular materials to be reused in new Pirelli tire manufacturing without compromising quality or performance standards.
The Industrial Ecosystem and Partner Roles
The "Tyre-to-Tyre" initiative demonstrates that true product circularity requires a coordinated industrial ecosystem uniting complementary expertise around a shared material loop. The partner responsibilities within the process are structured as follows:
Pyrum: Converts end-of-life tires via pyrolysis into two valuable secondary raw materials: recovered carbon black (rCB) and tire pyrolysis oil (TPO). The upgraded rCB partially replaces primary carbon black in Pirelli's European production lines.
BASF: Utilizes the TPO supplied by Pyrum alongside fossil-based feedstocks to produce chemical building blocks such as butadiene and styrene. Applying a mass balance approach, the recycled content is converted into ISCC PLUS-certified Ccycled® products.
Synthos: Processes these circular materials from BASF to manufacture ISCC PLUS-certified synthetic rubber tailored for high-performance tire applications.
Pirelli: Reintegrates this synthetic rubber into its manufacturing operations, effectively closing the circular material loop.
Representing one of the most comprehensive applications of tire recycling in Europe, the project illustrates how end-of-life tires can be transformed into valuable resources within a structured, traceable industrial framework.
