Would you run Michelins anymore? Or any tire that uses recycled plastic?

[Shawn Burns]

If you fail to understand that large companies MUST react to the world around them, I won't be able to explain it to you. Every company would love to concentrate solely on making a great product and serving its clients well. That is no longer enough in today's world. Fail to grow, innovate and understand the direction things are headed and you go broke. There is a reason every major oil producer has a renwable enrgy arm now. Kodak never thought Digital would replace film, wrong. When is the last time you saw a VHS video, last time you used a pay phone and on it goes.

Do companies like Bud Light make big expensive mistakes, absolutely, but so do the ones that don't adapt. Look at bricks and mortar retail, those with no online option are dropping like flies.

I could go on much longer but the fact remains, Michelin has a long and great history of building great tires. Not recycling is not going to be an option in the near future; if anyone is going to get incorporating recycled material into their tire right, I would bet on them.

You assume that putting plastic in tires is something that will improve the technology. The examples that you listed were improvements, not sacrifices. I think a closer argument to what is going on here is ethanol in gasoline. There were so many fluffy thoughts beforehand about how a little ethanol in gasoline would help the environment. In the end, we have a far inferior gasoline product than we had years ago at a higher cost. There is a saying that is being used, "you go woke, you get broke." I will quietly monitor this "inovation" while others do the testing.

 

[Docwagon1776]

Tires *already* have plastic polymers in them. The question is 'made from scratch' vs recycled.

 

[bcbouy]

personally,i don't care what goes in to my tires.it's not like i'm not going to replace them on a regular basis.my truck isn't a pavement princess.my newest set got a screw puncture a week after i got them.

 

[KC5TGQ]

I am s

They wouldnt have a national campaign, and in fact international campaign, on this if they want it to be invisible. I wouldn't have seen this commercial while watching a football game if Michelin didnt want me to support this, which is what they are betting on.

If you look at other tire companies you don't see this, you can google any tire company and their mission statement, goodyears is "to deliver quality products". BFG same ilk as goodyear just longer and drawn out. Coopers mission statement increase value for their shareholders, lol. I oddly like that somehow. But, Michelins wants you to know their main stated goal is sustainability. Is that what you look for in a tire? Maybe so, maybe they will gain customers because indeed they want everyone to know they will be the leader on this moving forward. I don't know of any other tire company doing so. Either way it is a bold move?

Autoblog link coming next year.

Michelin says its goal of "achieving 40% sustainable materials (of renewable or recycled origin) by 2030 and 100% by 2050" is one step closer to reality. The French tire giant has successfully tested a plastic recycling technology by French biochemistry company Carbios that can be used in tire production.

So we now go from talk to actually seeing this in development and this is scheduled to happen in 2024. So when you think about what we ask tires to do, stay inflated in hot and cold while having a ton or two of weight at all times, not to mention heat cycles and what that does to tires. And lets discuss what sunlight does to plastic, would you trust recycled plastic tires in sunlight for 5 years? Prior to this plastic has not been able to be recycled for anything other then a filler or friendship brackets. In fact greenpeace official position is that plastic cannot ever be really recycled, once it is denatured the plastic will loose strength and not even hold water, but next year these tires that stay inflated and hold up tons of weight, will now have recycled plastic. So, they say they have figured it out, they "say" we are really to make our tires with recycled plastic. Michelin is in fact a top two tire here cooper being the other on this board according to the other poll.

So did Michelin nail it? Did they fully embrace what their customers are looking for? Isnt that important to you recycling stuff? Or did they blow it? Did the lose the locker room with this stunt that might really end wrong?

I am sick of these "woke" companies. I don't give a crap whether they consider themselves sustainable or not. I just want good products at an acceptable price.

 

[David James]

Autoblog link coming next year.

Michelin says its goal of "achieving 40% sustainable materials (of renewable or recycled origin) by 2030 and 100% by 2050" is one step closer to reality. The French tire giant has successfully tested a plastic recycling technology by French biochemistry company Carbios that can be used in tire production.

So we now go from talk to actually seeing this in development and this is scheduled to happen in 2024. So when you think about what we ask tires to do, stay inflated in hot and cold while having a ton or two of weight at all times, not to mention heat cycles and what that does to tires. And lets discuss what sunlight does to plastic, would you trust recycled plastic tires in sunlight for 5 years? Prior to this plastic has not been able to be recycled for anything other then a filler or friendship brackets. In fact greenpeace official position is that plastic cannot ever be really recycled, once it is denatured the plastic will loose strength and not even hold water, but next year these tires that stay inflated and hold up tons of weight, will now have recycled plastic. So, they say they have figured it out, they "say" we are really to make our tires with recycled plastic. Michelin is in fact a top two tire here cooper being the other on this board according to the other poll.

So did Michelin nail it? Did they fully embrace what their customers are looking for? Isnt that important to you recycling stuff? Or did they blow it? Did the lose the locker room with this stunt that might really end wrong?

Neither answer suffices for me. Michelin used to be the gold standard for radial tires particularly when they were dual branded as Sears Roadhandlers. For the uninitiated, a lot more Sears tires went out the door than did Michies back in the late 60s,70s and early 80s when radials took over the market. Sometime in the early 2000s Michie began to have problems with an appearance of dry rot or sidewall cracking. The same issue also plagued their BF Goodrich and Uniroyal subsidiaries. I had two sets on consecutive automobiles that had to be replaced under warranty even though the treads were just fine. Cars were garaged, not run in particularly dynamic conditions. That I’m aware after discussion with a local tire store that used to specialize in Michies but now Carries all major brands, that issue still presents itself. For that reason I would no longer buy Michelin or subsidiaries.

 

[utley]

Having worked both aviation and heavy maintenance, I can tell you that 100% of those tires are reusable. Pretty much all a retreaded tire is.

 

[rvance]

I will trust Michelin to know what they're doing.

 

[ACEd]

I will wait and see ----- sounds good but ?????

Michelin has gotten ahead of themselves before - I put the Michelin Hydroedge tires on our Odyssey van when they first came out and in less than 4 years they had dry rot cracks so bad I had to replace them with minimal wear at 20k miles. Good in wet, good with respect to wear, but not good for age.

Also as I recall circa 1992 they had a problem with static electricity at toll booths when they changed compound on car tires to reduce carbon black - girl friend's Honda Accord had the problem and they replaced tires.

And then there were problems with balance on the LT275/70R18 LR E (and maybe other LT sizes) when they introduced the Defender series in the LT line.

I've mostly had good luck with Michelins (certainly better than Continental OE or Goodyears on my F250) and would continue to buy them, just wait a few years after any new technology matures.

 

[Burla]

Having worked both aviation and heavy maintenance, I can tell you that 100% of those tires are reusable. Pretty much all a retreaded tire is.

They are not using any old tire into new tires in this thread, they are using yogurt cups to make tires, just for clarification. That is what is in the posted commercial and their current marketing, yogurt cup tires. We have great uses for all old rubber, true that. Also in this thread we discovered plastic is used in the bottom layers on tires and in threads, so plastic is a large part of tires, until now plastic that was never denatured but rather produced raw into the specs of these tires.

 

[Burla]

The results of this thread so far is exactly what I wanted to see, where you guys are in trusting this corporation and/or the support for this endeavor. At this point it is more support (42%/57%) for recycled plastic tires over the status quo, I thank everyone for their participation and feel free to keep voting. If that number held true or if the nah's grew I'd say Michelin has some work to do winning the day, but if this held true perhaps michelin will actually gain customer base, that more people then not support these efforts. I imagine it would not take much to change that, as in if firestone 2.0 happened I'm sure those numbers will flip and then some, but lets all agree to hope that this does work. Since only one company is doing it, they will reap any benefit from groups seeking recycled tires for thier vehicles. It was surely a bold move imo, maybe their new marketing should be go bold or stay home or something like that. Go Bold Michelin, Go Bold.

 

[Harley Harrold]

I made the mistake of putting a set of Michelin tires on my Harley, lasted 4,400 miles where Dunlops lasted better than 10, 000 miles. I don't care what they use to make their tires, since I will not be purchasing tires from Michelin.

 

[392heminut]

I won't run Michelins on anything I own! If someone gave me a free set of Michelins I would sell them to someone I didn't like and use the money to buy a good set of tires!

Pretty much every Michelin tire I've ever owned seperated before it was worn out, except for the ones I put on my Harley. They just got splits in the carcass in the grooves and wore really fast! They were supposed to be high mileage touring tires.

 

[pcwizard2600]

I had excellent luck with Michelins on my suburban, but that a number of years ago. I was considering including Michelins in the list of choices for my RAM, but I think I'm more concerned with the reports of sidewalls cracking or having dry rot. Fortunately, it will be a while before I need tires, hopefully will give enough time for them to prove themselves. My concern is I've seen way too many products of various types that went with "recycled whatever", and never held up as well. Time will tell.

 

[blackbetty14]

I won't be getting them but they will need time to work out the kinks. Not everything new these days is better for the environment and they do there regular task worse than before. Solar panels are terrible, electric vehicles, renewable energy is mostly a joke at this time technology wise. The french had one smart move which was switching to Nuclear power for most of all generated electricity something like 70% and have some of the lowest energy rates in the world. Germany on the otherhand went the "renewable" route and costs are 50% higher than before. I mean look at what has happened with the soy ingredients to wire harness looms etc. I've known at least 2 people with inoprable cars from squirrels and thousands of dollars in damage. DOD, AFM lifters is another... slight increase in fuel mileage but how many cams have been eaten and engines destroyed. Good luck out there guys lol

 

[Bruce Robinson]

After reading all your lengthy responses, it makes me wonder how you fit your brain inside of your midget truck?

 

[Fuelie]

One thing that might be in play here is (no sure of the correct name). Companies now have a eco footprint rating from the government. For large corporations a low eco rating means more difficult conditions in doing business. I was at one of my largest customers and they were telling me about it.
I tend to believe this because I am a S-Corp myself and I had my annual online review. This year there was an extensive section on what I am doing to protect the envoirment. Of course I touted buying ECO diesel for less pollution and much better gas mileage .
The government is getting out of control on company business operations.
Tom

 

[Tunaman]

I voted no more because while MICHELINS are great tires, they also are very over priced. Many tires last 50,000 miles, Any more than that considering how many times they have rotated flexing each revolution in my mind you're asking for problems.

 

[Burla]

After reading all your lengthy responses, it makes me wonder how you fit your brain inside of your midget truck?

Some people like to get personal and flirt in these threads, and I dont judge, but lets stay on topic.

 

[Wild one]

This really has nothing to do with the thread,but i caught a little tidbit about Lego on the news tonight,and they apparently tried using recycled plastic for their blocks,and had issues with the blocks,and that's only a toy building block.

 

[Docwagon1776]

This really has nothing to do with the thread,but i caught a little tidbit about Lego on the news tonight,and they apparently tried using recycled plastic for their blocks,and had issues with the blocks,and that's only a toy building block.

IIRC, the blocks were fine. The money wasn't and the 'green' part didn't materialize. The energy needs for recycling were greater or equal to the manufacturing from scratch. It's why recycling post-consumer plastic always stalls. Capitalism won't widely adopt it until it's cheaper. That's generally a good thing, as long as 'hidden costs' are accounted for.

There's a lot of smart people working on it. Somebody is going to figure it out and there will be winners and losers, like in all tech races.