Scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada confirmed that they have found a way to recycle rubber from tyres. This will be a significant step towards greener disposal of tyres and will also allow the rubber to be recycled into new products.
Michael Brook, professor in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology at McMaster and the lead author of the study, has invented compounds known as "molecular scissors" that help break down the sulfur bonds formed during vulcanization.
These bonds are the very reason why for years it was nearly impossible to recover the petroleum based polymers from tyres for recycling.
The breakthrough though, which will work by breaking down the bonds and dissolving the rubber material, will result in the formation of disassembled components that can be turned into new products more easily.
Speaking about the breakthrough, Professor Brook said:
"The chemistry used to make tyres so durable on the road also makes them difficult to recycle. Tyres are made for single use from a non-renewable resource and often end up in massive landfills or storage facilities, ultimately leaching contaminants into the ecosystem.
He further explained that the tyre compound was chemically like a piece of fishnet which in the fishnet form was extremely difficult to recycle. However, the "molecular scissors" help in breaking the horizontal bonds in the fishnet to give simpler and smaller structures that are easier to recycle.
"We have found a way to cut all the horizontal lines so instead of having a net, you now have a large number of ropes, which can be isolated and reprocessed much more easily,” said Professor Brook.
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While there are ways to turn some chemical components of old tyres into building blocks for asphalt and cement, scientists have till today been unable to find a way to recycle the rubber. There has also been some progress towards using aspects of old tyres to create products such as clean fuels or improved concrete, but these also utilize only very small amounts of the tyre, leaving a majority of the waste behind. The invention is a first of its kind and has the potential to revolutionize tyre manufacturing and disposal by helping companies extract rubber out of old tyres.
Around three billion car tyres were manufactured and sold around the world in 2019, according to researchers at Ontario's McMaster University. These billion tyres will someday form tons of non-recyclable waste, being eventually burnt or thrown into a landfill, eventually causing extreme harm to the environment. The invention if taken further and developed could potentially help recycle billions of tyres one day and reduce the environmental impact exponentially.
The scientists though extremely optimistic, warned that the research is still in its early stages and the breakthrough is still very expensive to be commercially viable. But, it is still very promising and the main focus now will be to find a way to make it more cost effective to make it commercially viable.
