Rubber Recycling

Written by worldwide experts, this book offers comprehensive coverage of the latest technologies for recycled rubber. It covers the fundamentals of rubber, rubber products, and recycling; explores properties of rubber, rubber reuse, and reuse specifications; and examines new applications and processes for recycling rubber. Responding to the continuing search for easier, cheaper, and more innovative methods and technologies, the book discusses unconventional polymer recycling, powdered rubber waste applications, and the blending recycling waste rubber with waste plastics. It also discusses how present market demands can be met with recycled rubber.

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.