Rubber in the Environmental Age


Book Description




Brazil and the Struggle for Rubber


Book Description

Brazil once enjoyed a near monopoly in rubber when the commodity was gathered in the wild. By 1913, however, cultivated rubber in South-east Asia swept the Brazilian gathered product from the market. In this innovative study, Warren Dean demonstrates that environmental factors have played a key role in the many failed attempts to produce a significant rubber crop again in Brazil. In the Amazon attempts to shift to cultivated rubber failed repeatedly. Brazilian social and economic conditions have been blamed for these failures, in particular the failure of local capitalists and the refusal of the working class to accept wage labour. Dean shows in this study, however, that the difficulty was mainly ecological: the rubber tree in the wild lives in close association with a parasitic leaf fungus; when the tree was planted in close stands, the blight appeared in epidemic proportions.




Tyre Recycling


Book Description

This is an expert overview on the topic of tyre recycling. It summarises current practices and the factors that have contributed to their growth and efficacy as viable, economically and environmentally sound methods of dealing with post-consumer tyres. The primary area of study of this report is the EU, but reports from the US have also been cited. Statistics from the EU markets, which illustrate changes in the industry since the inception of the European Tyre Recycling Association a decade ago are incorporated. Around 400 references with abstracts from recent global literature accompany this review, sourced from the Polymer Library, to facilitate further reading. A subject index and a company index are included.




Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Impact of Polymeric Products


Book Description

This review describes the process of life cycle analysis in some detail. It describes the different organisations involved in researching and applying these techniques and the database resources being used to generate comparative reports. The overview explains the factors to be considered, the terminology, the organisations involved in developing these techniques and the legislation which is driving the whole process forward. The ISO standards relating to environmental management are also discussed briefly in the document. Design for the environment is covered in the report. This review is accompanied by summaries of selected papers on life cycle analysis and environmental impact from the Rapra Polymer Library database.




The Rubber Age


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Spaceship Earth in the Environmental Age, 1960–1990


Book Description

The idea of the earth as a vessel in space came of age in an era shaped by space travel and the Cold War. Höhler’s study brings together technology, science and ecology to explore the way this latter-day ark was invoked by politicians, environmentalists, cultural historians, writers of science fiction and many others across three decades.




Recycling and Re-use of Waste Rubber


Book Description

Recycling of rubber materials is necessary from both an environmental and economic perspective. This book describes everything from the world market to the many novel technologies and processes developed for the re-use and recycling of our common rubber materials. Devulcanization, production of rubber crumbs, reprocessing and manufacture of new materials are thoroughly described and discussed.










Materials and the Environment


Book Description

Addressing the growing global concern for sustainable engineering, this title is devoted exclusively to the environmental aspects of materials.