Significant Trends in Rubber Research Driven by Environment, Resource, and Sustainability

Rubber is a strategic material with high elasticity that has experienced hundreds of years of application history and hundreds of years of synthetic rubber history. Since the 21st century, human beings are increasingly concerned about the environment and resources, and the sustainable development and performance of rubber products have a profound impact on the development of these fields. This perspective focuses on the impact of biobased rubbers, biobased fillers, biobased/less toxic additives, and rubber cycling on the resource, environment, and sustainability of the rubber industry. The authors emphasize the challenges and development routes for the sustainable development of the rubber industry not only from the perspective of biobased sources for raw materials but also from the perspective of green processing and material recycling, and especially expound the key scientific and technical issues related to these fields. The authors hope that this perspective will provide guidance for the sustainable development of the world rubber industry and the research and development of cutting-edge elastomers.