New and highly efficient recycling technology to turn used tires into raw materials for rubber and nylon

Billions of tires are discarded globally every year, and this is identified as one of the major causes of serious environmental pollution. A research team at KAIST Department of Chemistry has succeeded in selectively converting waste tires into high-purity cyclic alkenes, which are high-value chemical raw materials used as raw materials for rubber or nylon fibers. This is evaluated as a new turning point in the field of waste tire recycling.