tires made from dandelion are developed by Goodyear and Continental

We should expect something new in the rubber industry. Research is being carried out in Germany and the United States to improve the extraction of latex from dandelions and thus mass produce these tires.

When you break a dandelion stem or roots, a little white juice comes out, this is latex. This latex can then be transformed into rubber to make tires. This is a process that Goodyear, in the United States, and Continental, in Germany, are currently trying to perfect.

Currently, natural rubber comes from rubber trees, the rubber tree par excellence, whose bark is bled to recover the latex, mainly in Southeast Asia, but also in South America and Africa.

Produce homemade rubber

Finding another way to produce this rubber is above all a question of sovereignty. Today, natural rubber is classified as a “critical material” in Europe, exactly like rare earths, this group of 17 metals essential for cutting-edge technologies (smartphones, hard drives, screens, wind turbines, electric car batteries, etc.). This Dependence on imports from Asia is all the more problematic since the rubber tree is a tree susceptible to diseases, as we have deplored in South America.

It would therefore be valuable to have new latex plants, especially if they grow in our latitudes. Among other plants capable of producing this rubbery juice, we find the guayule, a small shrub from the Mexican desert, or the dandelion. The rubber obtained is exactly the same. Only the way of harvesting it is different. You have to grind the roots of the dandelion to extract the latex.

Exploding demand

It is very important to have this alternative for tire manufacturers, because demand is exploding. Particularly because of electric cars, which accelerate faster than thermal cars. This push puts more stress on the tires, which wears them out more.

In addition, natural rubber is essential for the automotive industry because it allows for higher performance tires. Rubber from petrochemicals not only produces a lower quality tire, but also more polluting, which does not go in the direction of decarbonization.

At the moment, the production of rubber from dandelion is not profitable, but research has given a boost to improving the process. With international trade increasing more and more, we fear one day contamination of Asian rubber trees; the production of natural rubber could then drop suddenly. It would be a disaster if there is no alternative.