Editorial.

Editorial

Recycling is not a new concept to the rubber industry. This industry has one of the longest records of recycling. Rubber dust has been recycled for over a century and tires have been recycled successfully for quite some time. The success of the tire retreading industry needs no documentation here and prior to radialization, a significant amount of reclaim was incorporated into bias tires. Radial tires contain little or no reclaim but this is because it affects the desired properties negatively. I don't think the driving public wants to give up the enhanced handling characteristics or that the car companies would relinquish the added MPG provided by the radial design. But there is a perception in the public that the rubber industry does little, if any recycling.

Our most visible product, the tire, is also one of the most visible products in the waste stream, even though it represents a small percentage of the total waste picture. Mountains of scrap tires are shown in dumps and should one catch fire, film footage and photos are shown for days. The statistics tell you that there are over two billion scrap tires in landfills and another 240 million are added yearly. The commentary mentions that a new tire contains only a minute amount of recycled rubber if it contains any at all. A perception of an industry thatdoes not care to address this problem has developed.

This perception has spawned legislation to supposedly correct the mounting scrap tire problem. The inference behind the legislation is that the industry is not doing anything about recycling, so the government will force them to do the right thing. It seems the industry was doing the right thing without government interference 50 years ago when it's estimated the industry used over 600 million pounds a year of reclaim. That number has dropped because of radialization. But radialization also increased the usage of natural rubber, a renewable resource. When the technology was there, the industry had an outstanding record for recycling back into product.

And the technology is still evolving as you'll find out when you read the three articles in this issue pertaining to recycling. The problems of lower green strengths and tensile strengths are being addressed. Newer applications are emerging that look promising.

The industry doesn't need legislation to force it to recycle. It could use assistance in creating markets for recycled rubber or the government could use its procurement procedures to increase recycled rubber usage. As proven half a century ago, the rubber industry will use recycled rubber if there is a market, there's no need for legislation to force it.