Abstract: The disclosure provides a process for the recovery of component materials from composite products, the process including: a) providing a composite product that comprises a plurality of component materials, the component materials including uncured rubber and reinforcement material selected from fabric and/or metal; b) preparing one or more standardised sheets of composite product, wherein each standardised sheet has a maximum thickness of 125 mm or less; and c) jetting pressurised water onto one or more surface of the standardised sheets, whereby the water is at a pressure of up to 500 bar, thereby stripping the uncured rubber from the reinforcement material and resulting in a mixture of uncured rubber fabric and reinforcement material.

Abstract: A process and resulting product is provided in which vulcanized rubber crumb has selected chemical bonds broken and sulphur removal by biotreatment with hydrophobic bacteria, such as mycolic acid containing actinomycete bacteria of ‘mycolata’, without significant degradation of the hydrocarbon polymer. The products obtained from the use of these bacteria may be processed alone or in blends with virgin rubber and revulcanized to yield products of much higher quality than conventional reclaimed rubber materials.