Tyre manufacturer Yokohama is now selling tyres that consist of 80 percent non-petroleum materials. The main ingredient in the new tyres is orange oil.

Yokohama have named their new tyre the Super E-spec and it has already been received well in the automobile industry – the Super E-spec won the Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award in 2008.

The tyre uses orange oil, a sustainable product, alongside natural rubber to reduce the amount of petroleum used in making the tyres. The tyres are also said to have a 20 percent reduction in rolling resistance therefore giving consumers better fuel efficiency.

The one question which remains on the tyres is how to dispose of them easily. At present, Yokohama have not said what the environmental impact of disposing of the tyres is or whether the orange oil will biodegrade over time.

The current process for recycling car tyres involved devulcanizing the rubber in them which basically removes the oil from the tyres and extracts the natural rubber. This is an expensive process meaning the tyres are often used for other purposes rather than being recycled for example by being shredded and used in children’s playgrounds.

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