The rubber industry faces mounting pressure from climate targets, tightening regulation, and a global mandate to rethink how materials are made, used, and recovered. The solutions exist — but they're scattered across labs, policy documents, and research papers most decision-makers never see. This handbook closes that gap.
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Mission
Climate change is reshaping every industry — and rubber is no exception. Tires, seals, hoses, conveyor belts, medical gloves: elastomers are embedded in virtually every supply chain on earth. Yet the vast majority end up incinerated or landfilled. The window to change that is narrowing.
Regulatory pressure is accelerating. The EU's Ecodesign Regulation, Extended Producer Responsibility mandates, carbon border adjustments, and incoming recycled-content quotas are forcing procurement, R&D, and strategy teams to act — often before clear answers exist. The science is advancing rapidly. The policy landscape is shifting fast. And often a gap between what's known in the lab and what reaches the industry exists.
The Sustainable Rubber Handbook exists to close that gap. As a PhD researcher in sustainable elastomers, I want to make the science accessible — so that anyone who cares about the topic can stay informed and contribute to making rubber more sustainable.
No prior expertise needed — just curiosity.
Covalent adaptable networks, dynamic crosslinks, and what "recyclable thermoset" actually means in industrial practice.
Policy, infrastructure, and market forces shaping rubber's path to circularity — beyond the chemistry.
Biobased fillers, silica systems, green plasticizers — formulation choices that actually scale to industry.
What's being published, what's overhyped, what's genuinely advancing — reviewed and translated so you don't have to.
The Author
Doctoral Researcher in Elastomer Systems · Deutsches Institut für Kautschuktechnologie, Hannover
I'm a PhD researcher at DIK (Deutsches Institut für Kautschuktechnologie) in Hannover, working on recyclable elastomer systems — specifically vitrimer composites.
I started this newsletter because I noticed a pattern: genuinely promising research on sustainable rubber often going largely unnoticed outside of academic circles — while the people in industry who could benefit most rarely have the time to find it themselves. This is my attempt to fix that — translating complex research into clear, accessible insights for anyone working in or around the rubber industry.