**1. Introduction**

The natural environment consists of many interacting phenomena and processes that must achieve a state of equilibrium. Manufacturing activity is constantly striving towards one direction—a cycle of production and consumption. In this cycle, raw materials are in the end converted to waste and dangerous emissions. Modern civilization is dependent on the automotive industry, both in terms of transport and everyday life. In order to reduce the consumption of raw materials, manufacturers must take this is into account at the design and production stage of a product.

The global production of tires currently reaches about 2 billion units, and the world production of rubbers is at nearly 30 million tonnes.T. This will not change in the near future; the number of passenger cars traveling on the road will only increase, and motor vehicles cannot be manufactured without tires.

Until recently, potential buyers of car tires paid attention primarily to the highest quality of the product, while manufacturers paid attention to the highest possible efficiency of the manufacturing process. Along with the growing ecological awareness around the world, attention began to be paid to the lowest possible harmfulness of both the production, operation, and post-use disposal of tires. Therefore, new solutions began to appear on the market, such as the green tires. Automotive companies are actively searching for solutions expected to improve the environmental soundness of their products. These efforts have contributed to reductions in fuel consumption and the emissions of harmful substances to the atmosphere, and have promoted the use of components that facilitate material recycling. Ecological tires are structurally similar to traditional tires; however, they are made of different materials. In addition, the ecological tire uses improved rubber compounds, and the tread pattern has been modified so the groove and sipes are not so deep. In numerous ways, ecological tires outperform traditional solutions, in terms of fuel efficiency, rolling resistance, and the emission of harmful substances such as carbon dioxide. Also, savings in fuel consumption are said to reach approximately 0.2 L/100 km, which compensates for the higher price of ecological tires. In addition, the novelty tire is about 20% lighter than a tire produced in a traditional manufacturing technology. Several aspects differentiate the traditional and the ecological tire, e.g., the tread pattern. In the modern tire production process, carbon black has been entirely replaced by silica. The substitution of steel and other materials contributes to the weight reduction of the green tire, which is claimed to weigh 25% less than a traditional one. Green tires are believed to reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by reducing rolling resistance, which in the traditional model amounts to approximately 12 kg/T, whereas the modern design is said to maintain the level of up to 8 kg/T. Another advantage of lower rolling resistance is the lesser noise generated by the tires. Therefore, green tires also have an impact on the environment, as noise is treated as a part of pollution. Furthermore, there is a marked rise in fuel economy. In urban traffic, a percentage share of fuel consumption reduction for ecological tires is close to 3%, while in rural/motorway traffic (at high speeds) it is reported to approach to 5%. Finally, the average resource used during the production of one ecological tire amounts to: 1036 MJ of electricity, 45 liters of water, 0.02 kg of solvents, and about 0.5 kg of waste is generated [manufacturer's data].

Due to changes taking place in the modern economy and the emergence of new social expectations, in the life cycle of car tires, apart from technical, design, and manufacturing aspects, environmental protection objectives must be taken into account, including reducing the depletion of raw materials and improving the quality of the environment and negative impact on human health. In order to achieve these objectives, appropriate assessment tools are required that enable the identification and reduction of emerging environmental problems. The basic tool used for this type of assessment is a product life cycle analysis known as the LCA method (Life Cycle Assessment) [1].

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been developed over the last three decades. LCA developed from merely energy analysis to a comprehensive environmental burden analysis in the 1970s. Then, full-fledged life cycle impact assessment and life cycle costing models were introduced in the 1980s and 1990s, and social-LCA and particularly consequential LCA gained ground in the first decade of the 21st century [2]. Life Cycle Assessment is a cradle-to-grave approach to assessing industrial systems. Cradle-to-grave begins with collecting material from the ground to produce a product and ends when all the materials are returned to the field. LCA evaluates all stages of life from the point of view that they are interdependent, which means that one operation leads to all. This method makes it possible to use the cumulative environmental impact from all stages of the product life cycle and provides a comprehensive picture of environmental conditions [3].

The key application of the LCA method is to support the search for new solutions that will ensure a balance between economic development and environmental protection. Optimization in terms of ecology, energy, and economy can be achieved by rationalizing the use of resources and all kinds of activities aimed at reducing the amount of pollution and waste. The rationalization of resource consumption is based on reducing the material and energy consumption of the processes taking place at each stage of the life cycle. Among them, the design and production stage is of particular importance, because it is then that decisions are made that affect the course of the further part of the cycle and, consequently, have a significant impact on the overall ecological and energy characteristics of a car tire. For this reason, particular attention during this research will be focused on the differences in the potential environmental impact of the production stage of traditional versus ecological car tires [4].

The main purpose of this work was to analyze the car tire manufacturing process with the use of the LCA method. Secondly, the study aimed to show the capacity of the LCA method to determine the tire production process parameters that will mitigate adverse environmental impacts in their entire life cycle horizon.
