ING has invested in Black Bear Carbon (BBC), a company that recycles old tyres into a raw material used to make things like pen ink, smartphone covers and new tyres.
ING launched Sustainable Investments early this year with €100 million of capital for sustainable ‘scale-ups’ that have a proven concept and make a positive environmental impact. Black Bear is its second investment.
The raw material ‘carbon black’ is used to make many things we use daily and is traditionally obtained by burning oil, a highly polluting process. At the same time, 1.5 billion tyres are wasted or incinerated each year, which releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). Black Bear tackled both of these problems by developing a technology that turns these tyres into carbon black.
Black Bear’s tyre-to-carbon black technology is a circular economy game changer. It could transform an industry that most of us don’t know exists, but which is a major source of CO2. Read our Client Story to find out more on Black Bear's initiative.