Rubber Recycling

The safe disposal and reuse of industrial and consumer rubber waste continues to pose a serious threat to environmental safety and health, despite the fact that the technology now exits for its effective recycling and reuse. Mountains of used tires confirm the belief that chemically crosslinked rubber is one of the most difficult materials to recycle. That coupled with a long history of failed attempts to create quality products from crumb rubber has resulted in such a resistance to new ideas concerning rubber recycling that very little literature on the subject has even seen the light of day.

Rubber Recycling is one of those rare books that has the potential to directly impact our ecological well-being. The editors of this important volume have filled a void in technological responsibility by bringing together a group of international experts who, using substantial research evidence, prove that the utilization of recycled rubber is not just desirable, but is also quite feasible and profitable.

This text provides a thorough overview of the fundamentals of rubber and the challenges of recycling. However, the heart of the book lies in its detailed explanation of the various processes currently available to breakdown, recycle, and reuse crosslinked rubber. These include --

Unconventional polymer recycling

High-pressure, high-temperature sintering

Ultrasonic and non ultrasonic devulcanization

The use of tire particles as replacement aggregates for low-strength concrete material

The utilization of powdered rubber waste in the production of rubber compounds

The future potential for recycling waste rubber by blending it with waste plastics

Never forgetting that these technologies are meaningless without industry participation, the book concludes with a highly practical discussion on how present market demands can be met with recycled rubber.

Sadhan K. De, Avraam I, Isayev Klementina Khait