Goodyear could clean up the air - with a tyre filled with moss

In amongst the new cars at the Geneva Motor Show, non-car manufacturing companies have their own products to exhibit. For tyre manufacturer Goodyear, that was a very special new tyre concept – which the brand describes as a 'visionary solution for cleaner, more convenient, safer and more sustainable urban mobility'.

The Oxygene concept, as it's called, is a new tyre which features a unique sidewall filled with living moss. Yes, that's right, moss – the springy green stuff underfoot in forests and grasslands across the country. Goodyear reckons that by putting it in a tyre, the moss will release oxygen into the air – and remain alive by absorbing moisture and nutrients from the road surface.

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The tyre can also absorb CO2 through photosynthesis, scrubbing the air and improving air quality in urban locations.

Rather than a traditional pneumatic construction, the tyre is 3D-printed with rubber from recycled tyres and contains no air at all. Goodyear claims that makes it lightweight, shock-absorbing and totally puncture-resistant.

"Like the concept designs Goodyear has presented at Geneva in the past, Oxygene is meant to challenge our thinking and help drive the debate around smart, safe and sustainable future mobility," Delaney said. "By contributing in this way to cleaner air generation, the tyre could help enhance quality of life and health for city-dwellers."