Reciclagem de borrachas: uma abordagem sobre processos e impactos ambientais
Abstract
Rubber wastes represent a growing and important environmental issue. Despite the
existence of legislation, the increasing demand for rubber products, combined with
their improper postconsumer disposal, have caused several environmental, social,
and economic impacts. Due to the three-dimensional structure formed by cross-links
during vulcanization, elastomeric materials undergo limited reuse pathways. To
overcome this limitation, different recycling routes have been applied, such as
grinding, energy recovery and, more recently, the devulcanization technique, in which
the cross-links are selectively broken, allowing the rubber to be reprocessed and
remolded for different applications. This work aims to describe different routes for
rubber waste recycling, depicting different applications to reinsert these materials into
the production chain. Furthermore, the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was
applied to compare the eco-impacts resulting from the energy recycling of different
rubber materials (natural rubber, SBR, BR and silicone) in terms of the following
categories: global warming, human toxicity (carcinogenic effects), and scarcity of fossil
resources. Natural rubber presented the smallest eco-impacts when subjected to
energy recycling. SBR and BR presented intermediate impacts, also presenting
equivalent results, in view of their similar composition. On the other hand, silicone
rubber presented the greatest impacts in all analyzed eco-impact categories.
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