TY - JOUR
T1 - Rubber waste management: A review on methods, mechanism, and prospects
AU - Chittella, Harika
AU - Yoon, Li Wan
AU - Ramarad, Suganti
AU - Lai, Zee-Wei
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was granted by the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), Malaysia via Fundamental Research Grant Scheme ( FRGS/1/2020/TK0/HWUM/03/1 ) and was supported by Taylor's University through its Taylor's Ph.D. Scholarship Programme.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Each year a large amount of worn synthetic and natural rubber is discarded. Due to the complex three-dimensional structure, recycling, and degradation of rubber by natural processes are proven complicated. While waste rubber disposal has become a problem globally, the current rubber waste management measures are found to be inadequate. Rubber devulcanization or degradation produces rubber with broken crosslinks or broken main chain polymer, respectively. The devulcanized or degraded rubber can be reused, recycled as a new product, or used for energy recovery in various applications. The current review addresses the problems in rubber waste management and aims to provide detailed insight into alternatives to manage rubber waste through thermal, mechanical, physical, chemical, and biological methods. The advantages, disadvantages and bottlenecks present in each method is discussed. This review also presents the circular economy establishment on rubber in current and future prospect. This review concluded that while more research on technical, economic, and environmental aspects is needed, the methods discussed in the review lead the way for a more sustainable framework in rubber waste management.
AB - Each year a large amount of worn synthetic and natural rubber is discarded. Due to the complex three-dimensional structure, recycling, and degradation of rubber by natural processes are proven complicated. While waste rubber disposal has become a problem globally, the current rubber waste management measures are found to be inadequate. Rubber devulcanization or degradation produces rubber with broken crosslinks or broken main chain polymer, respectively. The devulcanized or degraded rubber can be reused, recycled as a new product, or used for energy recovery in various applications. The current review addresses the problems in rubber waste management and aims to provide detailed insight into alternatives to manage rubber waste through thermal, mechanical, physical, chemical, and biological methods. The advantages, disadvantages and bottlenecks present in each method is discussed. This review also presents the circular economy establishment on rubber in current and future prospect. This review concluded that while more research on technical, economic, and environmental aspects is needed, the methods discussed in the review lead the way for a more sustainable framework in rubber waste management.
KW - Circular economy
KW - Devulcanization and degradation
KW - Microbial degradation
KW - Thermomechanical
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118512518&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2021.109761
DO - 10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2021.109761
M3 - Article
SN - 0141-3910
VL - 194
JO - Polymer Degradation and Stability
JF - Polymer Degradation and Stability
M1 - 109761
ER -
