Steel wire company Bekaert has delivered the first batches of third-party certified recycled steel to Bridgestone Corporation. Bekaert said that the successful pilot is the first step toward setting a new industry standard for recycled content in tire reinforcement, and to making certified tire reinforcement with high recycled content available to customers across the globe.

Bekaert said that the high recycled content reduces the CO₂ footprint of its product by about 50%.

There are many claims about circularity of materials in the tire industry, but lack of clear definitions and standards can lead to doubt on the validity of those claims. This third-party certification of both Bekaert and our wire rod supplier enables us to provide our customers with a guarantee of compliance of the recycled content claims based on recognized industry standards. This certificate allows customers to confidently include the recycled content in the Bekaert products to the tally of recycled content in their tires.

—Heiko Isselee, Innovation Platform manager Recycled Steel

In the third-party certified definition of recycled content, Bekaert applies the best available recycled content definitions and traceability of materials.

Bekaert’s tire reinforcement has a minimum recycled content of 50% for tire cord and 70% for bead wire. The processes at the supplier’s wire rod factory and at the Bekaert steel cord plant allow Bekaert to trace the content in the composition and separate this material from others in all steps of production, storage, and transport. Thus, it is guaranteed that the physical content of the steel cord and bead wire supplied contain the declared amount of recycled steel.