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Published on July 9th, 2009

New Tires Made of Oil from Orange Peels

by Trey Granger

Tire manufacturer Yokohama is now selling a model made with 80 percent non-petroleum material, substituting orange oil as the primary ingredient to make vulcanized rubber.

The new tire is called the Super E-spec™ and has already received the Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award in 2008. Yokohama will initially market the tire for hybrid car models such as the Toyota Prius.

“The eco-focused dB Super E-spec mixes sustainable orange oil and natural rubber to drastically cut the use of petroleum, without compromising performance,” Yokohama vice president of sales Dan King said. “It also helps consumers save money at the gas pump by improving fuel efficiency via a 20-percent reduction in rolling resistance.”

Orange oil is considered sustainable because it is produced from a renewable resource. The same philosophy of reducing petroleum use is utilized in producing plastics from corn starch or vegetable oil.

Yokohama has yet to release the environmental impact of disposing these tires, which typically provides an environmental concern. The petroleum in traditional tires can burn for months in a landfill and is difficult to extinguish. These fires also release black smoke and toxins into the air. Yokohama has not specified whether the orange oil will biodegrade over time.

The process for recycling tires involves devulcanizing the rubber, which would essentially remove the oil and extract natural rubber. Because this is an expensive process, used tires are often shredded and turned into playground surfacing or additives for the soil in sports turf. It can also be reused as artwork.

Trey Granger

Trey Granger

Trey Granger is a staff member at Earth911.com.

More articles by Trey


43 Comments

  1. New Tires Made of Oil from Orange Peels | Organic Vida Community

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 10:20 am

    [...] want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet BoxEarth911.com Trey Granger Thursday, July 9, [...]

  2. Amanda D

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am

    This is great news. We need to lessen our dependence on petroleum and more digging is never the answer. Places like the Red Desert are in danger because of our oil consumption: http://tiny.cc/wvgSs Bring on the oranges!

  3. New Tires Made of Oil from Orange Peels « Footprintfreer’s Web Spot

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 10:50 am

    [...] New Tires Made of Oil from Orange Peels – Earth911.com [...]

  4. Bad Ideas Abound!

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 11:37 am

    Now that my tires will be made from a food-source, you can expect the cost of oranges and orange juice to skyrocket!

    If this catches on, the mega-farms will devote their land to raising genetically-modified high-oil-yeilding oranges to sell to manufacturers at the expense of raising edible oranges for human dietary consumption. If you think it won’t happen, think again–it already happens with corn and other crops.

    Humans can now compete with the auto-industry for food; as we already compete for food with the oil companies that purchase corn for ethanol production.

    I guess that means the poor go hungry while the rich afford orange-oil tires for their corn-burning cars. Maybe we should make caviar-oil tires. How about using an oil source we don’t eat—algae-oil tires?

  5. JAG

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

    It would be great to see this process used in making BICYCLE tires too! Here, where a 1/2 HP driving force can use every bit of efficiency possible, would be a great boon to riding ease.

  6. Tires Made from Orange Oil Instead of Petroleum | Technology & Lifestyle Tech News

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    [...] Earth 911 [...]

  7. Tires Made from Orange Oil Instead of Petroleum | Ethical Investments

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 12:51 pm

    [...] Earth 911 [...]

  8. Tires Made from Orange Oil Instead of Petroleum | InfoFork.com

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    [...] Earth 911 [...]

  9. nachhaltiger.de » Blog Archive » Tires Made from Orange Oil Instead of Petroleum

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    [...] Earth 911 [...]

  10. EnergyByEarth.com » Tires Made from Orange Oil Instead of Petroleum

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    [...] Earth 911 [...]

  11. Doug

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    Unless you fancy eating the rind of oranges, where oil of orange is derived from, it won’t hurt the food supply.

  12. Tires Made from Orange Oil Instead of Petroleum - Zidee.com

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    [...] Earth 911 [...]

  13. Good Use

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    I’ll certainly be looking at a set for my Prius. Hopefully it’s a good use for all the waste in the production of orange juice.

  14. Tires Made from Orange Oil Instead of Petroleum | Dekalb Academy of Technology & the Environment

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 6:20 pm

    [...] Earth 911 [...]

  15. dingdong

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 6:53 pm

    Orange oil comes from the peel and not the edible portion of the fruit. It’s a by-product of the orange juice industry and is the source of the orange smell in “natural” degreasers. Its been used as an industrial chemical source for years.

    Sorry “bad ideas abound”, we can all hold out for the caviar oil tires though.

  16. Kathy

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

    Cool! thanks for the information. Maybe instead of disposing of petroleum based tires as playgrounds for kids with all the toxins they contain and that heat up to unsafe temperatures, they’ll actuallly recycle tires back into tires! cradle to cradle recycling is always best.

  17. RE: Bad Ideas Abound

    posted on July 9th, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    “Now that my tires will be made from a food-source, you can expect the cost of oranges and orange juice to skyrocket!”

    So getting oil from the leftover peels is going to make orange juice prices skyrocket? That is like saying that makers of biodiesel will make grease prices go up because they recycle the leftover restaurant waste. You may want to rename your post to “Stupidity Abounds”. The irony would be perfect.

  18. New Tires Made of Oil from Orange Peels | The Gonzo Report

    posted on July 10th, 2009 at 5:15 am

    [...] material, substituting orange oil as the primary ingredient to make vulcanized rubber. full story Share and [...]

  19. Joe Montana

    posted on July 10th, 2009 at 5:46 am

    Tires by Sunkist. Interesting!!!

  20. Josh Thomas

    posted on July 10th, 2009 at 7:11 am

    Wow, this is just absolutely amazing! Who would ever have thought there would be tires made from the Oils from an orange peel. This is an excellent way to preserve some of our more important natural resources.

  21. Ben

    posted on July 10th, 2009 at 7:32 am

    I hope the prices of oranges don’t increase if these are as good as they say. Also I hope the tread does not ‘peal off’ !.Wonder if other oils could be used such as olive oil.Maybe not, just a thought.

  22. 9a3

    posted on July 10th, 2009 at 9:52 am

    Orange oil is already by-product of orange juice production, but I wonder if there is enough orange oil in the world—or even the potential–for it to be used in conventional production? This article* indicates Sumimoto plans to begin selling oil-free tires in 2013.

    * http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2008/11/18/sumimoto-plans-sell-oil-free-tires

  23. Weird Science Roundup: Drunk Badgers, Zoo Battles, and Citrusy Tires | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

    posted on July 10th, 2009 at 11:42 am

    [...] Tires made with orange oil instead of petroleum are in the making! Perhaps they’ll exude a light [...]

  24. New tires made of oil from orange peels : Centre Flow

    posted on July 10th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    [...] Full Story [Earth911.com] [...]

  25. New tires made of oil from orange peels : Centre Flow

    posted on July 10th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    [...] Full Story [Earth911.com] [...]

  26. Elsewhere in the Ecosphere | Green Blog Media

    posted on July 10th, 2009 at 6:38 pm

    [...] New Tires Made of Oil from Orange Peels [...]

  27. garrett

    posted on July 10th, 2009 at 6:46 pm

    Doug,
    Wow thanks telling everybody that orange oil comes from the orange peel. I feel so much better that most of the orange will be wasted to harvest the precious peel for a stupid Prius. Or wait maybe we will buy oranges without peels in the market. Or even better!! Freshly squeezed and vulcanized orange juice!!! Awesome Doug, Way To Go!!!!

  28. Mike

    posted on July 11th, 2009 at 2:31 am

    I’d like to see some numbers on
    - how much collecting, storing, transporting, etc. costs to recycle the orange peels, all the way from the end user to the factory that extracts the oil, per pound of orange peels.
    - how many pounds of oranges peels would be needed from to make even 10% of the tires used in the world.
    - how many cars there will be if China, India, etc. keep buying cars at the current rates for the next two years.
    Where are the numbers???? Where’s the beef?

  29. Car Tires Made from Orange Peel Oil

    posted on July 11th, 2009 at 7:43 am

    [...] Earth 911: The new tire is called the Super E-spec™ and has already received the Popular Mechanics [...]

  30. Tires made from orange oil instead of petroleum - 704th Edition | My Low Carbon Home

    posted on July 11th, 2009 at 7:50 am

    [...] Earth 911 [...]

  31. Super E-Spec Tire Made of Orange Peels Oil | My Green Treasure

    posted on July 12th, 2009 at 2:40 am

    [...] into the air. Yokohama has not specified whether the orange oil will biodegrade over time.” – Earth911                   [...]

  32. Eco Tech: Yokohama’s ‘orange’ tire is 80 percent petroleum free, helps save gas | Green Cleaning Ideas

    posted on July 12th, 2009 at 3:06 am

    [...] Via: Earth911 [...]

  33. Tires made from orange oil instead of petroleum - 322th Edition | My Low Carbon Home

    posted on July 12th, 2009 at 8:49 am

    [...] Earth 911 [...]

  34. Tires made from orange oil instead of petroleum - 740th Edition | My Low Carbon Home

    posted on July 12th, 2009 at 8:49 am

    [...] Earth 911 [...]

  35. Technology - Week of 7.12.09 at The Catherine Austin Fitts Blog

    posted on July 13th, 2009 at 1:07 pm

    [...] New Tires Made of Oil from Orange Peels Earth911.com (09 July 09) [...]

  36. Iggy Dalrymple

    posted on July 13th, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    Except for deranged tree-huggers, I see no advantage to switching from petroleum to orange peel oil. I believe that orange peel oil is already used in health supplements and cleaning compounds. Why can’t the greenies just stay home and suck their thumbs?

  37. Scholars and Rogues » The return of Junkie Einstein: Nota Bene for 13 July 2009

    posted on July 13th, 2009 at 10:46 pm

    [...] destroy America … Perez Hilton, galactic overlord … A good use for peels of an orange / which as you might know rhymes with door hinge … Grampa Lloyd Christmas! … The [...]

  38. New tires made from orange oil | Performance Plus Tire

    posted on July 14th, 2009 at 2:09 pm

    [...] to an article from Earth911.com, tire maker Yokohama is selling a tire model now that is made of 80 percent [...]

  39. Nieuwe banden gemaakt van olie uit sinaasappelschillen | Dit Kan Niet Waar Zijn

    posted on July 29th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    [...] earth911.com Tags: [...]

  40. Neumáticos Hechos con Cascara de Naranja. | HelpingNature

    posted on August 16th, 2009 at 10:18 am

    [...] Vía  Earth911 [...]

  41. Think first

    posted on September 18th, 2009 at 9:05 pm

    If the orange oil comes from a waste byproduct in the production of orange juice, what is the fuss? No one eats those peels. The orange oil replaces much of the petroleum used for tires. The peels are easy to process (minimal energy input) or else orange oil would not already be a commodity. There is no need to find “the beef”, this new product is going to be beneficial to the environment.

  42. SGT Peek

    posted on October 11th, 2009 at 8:18 pm

    The first car ran on hemp oil. why waste our food when we could waste our drugs

  43. New Yokohama tire made from orange oil - PriusChat Forums

    posted on October 23rd, 2009 at 5:00 pm

    [...] New Yokohama tire made from orange oil Here is the link…New Tires Made of Oil from Orange Peels – Earth911.com [...]

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