Vestamid® eCO Gives Scrap Tires A New Life In Athletic Shoes

Evonik is introducing a new sustainable high-performance plastic, VESTAMID® eCO E40, in which fifty percent of  the virgin raw materials are replaced by material obtained from chemical recycling of used tires. Only renewable energy is used in production, which reduces the carbon footprint by a total of 42 percent. Evonik will present VESTAMID® eCO and its other sustainable plastic materials at this year’s K trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany, October 19-26.

VESTAMID® eCO E40, is a thermoplastic elastomer from the polyether block amide (PEBA) family.  PEBA molding compounds have been valued by well-known sporting goods manufacturers for more than 40 years and are used, for example, in sports shoe soles. The new product name eCO reinforces Evonik’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in production by using renewable or circular raw materials—in this case, raw materials from end-of-life tires. This is achieved through the mass balance approach which enables an immediate reduction of CO2 in existing plants and does not change the quality of the products in any way.

VESTAMID® eCO E40 is, without any restrictions, an immediate alternative with improved eco-balance for the long-established conventional molding compound for sports shoe soles with high resilience. The soles exhibit excellent low-temperature impact strength, chemical resistance and high elasticity, and are easy to color, process and overmold.  The proven performance properties of the material for sports shoe soles with high resilience, however, do not change.

The new VESTAMID® eCO E40 can also be used in other demanding applications, such as in the automotive and medical technology industries, Evonik said.

In the mass balance method, the proportions of mixtures of fossil and renewable or circular raw materials are determined mathematically over the entire value chain during production and assigned to the products. A neutral body verifies this across all production stages and confirms the result in a certificate.

© Scrap Tire News, October 2022