Rubber recycling

Historically, the chemical regeneration of rubber has been very important. By the end of the Second World War, 40% of reclaimed rubber was used as raw material in the rubber industry, either on its own or mixed with natural or synthetic rubber.

There are three reasons for the decline, or even disappearance, of reclaim rubber, at least in Europe and North America:

• the introduction of the radial carcass tire (replacing the conventional diagonal tire), which is much more demanding in terms of the properties of its various components;

• the very low price of raw materials;

• the use in the manufacture of reclaimed rubber of chemicals that are at least of concern within the meaning of REACH (§ 8 ).

End-of-life rubbers (especially tires) have long been landfilled. Since 1990, various initiatives have been taken in several countries to avoid landfilling and to use end-of-life rubbers either for energy recovery or for material recovery.