Manufacturing

Article 8: Second Life for Tires

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Article 8: How Michelin is finding a second life for tires

 

I did not think the tire industry was big on recycling but they are. Although it has less to do with them being environmentally conscious and more with the high cost of buying rubber. A lot of the castoffs end up being burned yet it’s still better than being dumped in a landfill. Every year in the U.S. more than 300 million tires are disposed of. Last year, French tire company Michelin bought Lehigh Technologies, whose specialty is turning the end-of-life tires into micronized rubber powder (MRP), which has many functions such as serving as feedstock for the higher performance tires sold by Michelin.

“…Lehigh’s technologies will become increasingly integral to Michelin’s shift toward a closed-loop production cycle that uses fewer raw or virgin inputs, according to the company’s top executive.”

According to the article, 42 million pounds of tires were repurposed into welcome mats last year. With Michelin behind them, Lehigh is interested in exploring non-traditional markets such as plastics, consumer goods, coatings, sealants, construction materials and even car parts. They are looking to expand use of MRP for things like a car headrest, and carpet and flooring. Times is so far the biggest gating factor.

 

Source: GreenBiz

Author: Heather Clancy

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/how-michelin-finding-second-life-tires

 

 

 

Article 6: Apple, Alcoa, Rio Tinto

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Article 6: Why Apple is getting cozy with aluminum giants Alcoa and Rio Tinto

I am a big lover of Apple. All the electronic products I own are Apple: iPhone, iPod, iPad, MacBook Air. So I was quite happy to read this article. Three years ago, Apple engineers brought together the two largest aluminum smelters in the world, Alcoa and Rio Tinto, as they were looking for way to reduce their carbon footprint. Thus, Elysis was born, a joint venture between Alcoa, Rio Tinto, and Apple to come up with a smelting process that would not only eliminate carbon but produce oxygen. It will not only decrease something negative but create something positive, which is a huge leap forward.

In their 2018 environmental progress report, Apple stated that 24% of their greenhouse gas emissions come from aluminum manufacturing. Meaning they can eliminate a quarter of their GHG emissions, which is the equivalent of removing 1.8 million cars from the road.

I checked AAPL’s stock for the 11thwhen this article came out and it was about 190 per share. It’s dipped to around 187 in the past few days. Though I believe the drop is related to the class action lawsuit against Apple over the butterfly keyboards of their MacBook’s.

 

Source: GreenBiz

Author: Heather Clancy

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/why-apple-getting-cozy-aluminum-giants-alcoa-and-rio-tinto