why ‘tire graveyards’ are a thing and not just recycled or broke down and reused?
In: Other
Toward the end of manufacturing, the rubber goes through a process called “vulcanization”.
This basically fuses the rubber molecules into one giant tire-shaped molecule. After vulcanization, it’s not as simple as melting the rubber back down, since the rubber no longer melts, which makes it basically impossible to recover the rubber in a usable form.
(Some tires do get ground up and used for track surfaces or playgrounds, but that rubber couldn’t be used in tires again)
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