Rubber Recycling Is There Life After…

In the mid 1990s recycling began to resurface after a lengthy hiatus. The focus was different from the early 1900s. Recycling goes back to the early 1900s in the form of reclaim. When environmental issues made it very difficult and expensive to continue due to the high cost to comply it disappeared from North America. In the 1980s Fred Stark resurrected the idea of recycling scrap rubber by showing that crumb rubber could be turned into a viable product by blending it with liquid polymers, and curatives then curing. He also patented the technology. This was the first of what is called rebonding or binder technology. In 1993-1995 devulcanization exploded on the scene with STIK leading the way. The difference between what STIK did and reclaim 50-70 years earlier, is in my opinion is the degree of breaking of the crosslinks. Reclaim, even now, is

extensively devulcanized. That includes much main chain scission. What STIK was trying to do, again I believe, was to devulcanize or regenerate the surface rendering it more amiable to rebonding between the rubber particles and between the rubber particles and the virgin phase.