In 2021, 274 million tires were scrapped in the USA alone, with 17 percent of them ending up in landfill: That’s 1 billion pounds of tire material, wasting space and posing potential threats including chemical leaching and auto-ignition.

One third of scrapped tires are chemically recycled through pyrolysis, but this process also presents serious health and environmental concerns due to its byproducts. Researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, however, have developed a new chemical process that deconstructs used rubber into useful building blocks for new materials without relying on harsh conditions or toxic byproducts.

Their recycling method works at lower temperatures and uses water-based conditions to break the material into smaller, soluble fragments. These can then be used to make epoxy resins for coatings, adhesives and even aerospace components. When tested, they were just as strong as their commercial counterparts.

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