Material recovery from waste rubber tyres and their geoenvironmental utilisation: a review

Abstract

The escalating environmental challenges posed by waste rubber tyres (WRTs) necessitate innovative solutions to address their detrimental effects on the geoenvironment. Thus, the knowledge about the recent advancements in material recovery from WRTs, emphasising their utilisation within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the circular economy principles, is the need of the hour. Keeping this in mind, various techniques generally used for material recovery, viz., ambient, cryogenic, waterjet, and so on, which unveil innovative approaches to reclaiming valuable resources (viz., recycled rubber, textiles, steel wires, etc.) from WRTs and various devulcanisation techniques (viz., physical, chemical, and microbial) are elaborated in this paper. In parallel, the paper explores the utilisation of the WRTs and recovered materials, highlighting their application in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering development projects while addressing the necessary environmental precautions and associated environmental risks/concerns. This paper incorporates circular economy principles into WRTs utilisation and focuses on achieving SDGs by promoting resource efficiency and minimising their environmental impact.