Article Blog 10: Eco-Friendly Tires (March 28, 2010)

Over the past few decades, there have been measures taken to improve the environment. Today, there have been proposals to tires being made from renewable sources; therefore, it will decrease the amount of oil used to make each tire. In the article, "Greener Tires, Without Oil, May be in the Making," (see link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36040076/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/) Matt Safford says, "The tire industry's dependence on oil could drop dramatically in the next five years. A new technology being developed in a research partnership between Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. and California-based biotechnology company Genecor aims to eliminate the oil currently used to make isoprene, a key tire ingredient, by creating a more environmentally friendly alternative using plants like sugar cane, corn, or switchgrass." Not only will the tire industry's decrease use in oil help the environment, it will also be an economic benefit around the world considering that oil is a natural resource that many nations dispute and fight over.

By the tire industry developing new ways to produce more eco-friendly tires by using renewable resource, it will undoubtedly have a tremendous impact on society. The use of green tires will help out in many ways. By using biologically engineered isoprene, companies will be able to escape from the dependence on the volatile nature of the oil market, ultimately allowing them to rely on a product with a more stable price. In the article, "Tires Made From Renewable Materials Commercially Possible Within Five Years," (see link: http://gas2.org/2010/03/26/tires-made-from-renewable-materials-commercially-possible-within-5-years/) Nick Chambers writes about how these newly invented tires will help solve the problems surrounding alternative means of transportation in the future. He writes, "There are about one billion tires made each year; each and every one of them uses seven gallons of crude oil to produce. Although seven billion gallons is just a small blip of the overall global annual use of crude oil, figuring out a way to make tires from something other than crude oil will, nonetheless, clearly help us in our goal to a sustainable transportation future." Using green tires will help society and the environment throughout all aspects of its production. While being produced, the emissions of harmful substances released into the air from normal, black tires will decrease. During driving, these newly advanced, eco-friendly tires will help boost mileage and cut carbon dioxide emissions. Like all things in technology, only time will tell whether these green tires truly latch on to society, but it will assuredly benefit society and the environment in more ways than one.