Six million smallholder farmers produce almost 90% of the world’s natural rubber: 70% of this goes to the tire industry, which then services other downstream users. Sold by the ton, there are some ...

Rubber plantations have been a main historical cause of tropical deforestation, and are generally responsible for a range of environmental and social ills. But rubber grown in agroforestry systems–in ...

Rubber seems ordinary until it fails. It holds air in your car tires, seals machinery in power plants, cushions vibration in industrial equipment and keeps garden hoses from dripping. For nearly a ...

Reinforced rubber has long been on that list: why is it so efficient in so many applications, from aircraft tires to industrial seals to medical devices? One team of engineers believes it finally has ...

Natural rubber, tapped from trees as latex, is the world's most widely used bio-elastomer. Comprising long molecular chains that make it pliable and stretchy yet highly resistant to cracking and ...

Over 4 million hectares of tree cover – an area equivalent to the size of Switzerland – may have been cleared to make space for rubber plantations since the 1990s. Out of all the rubber planted, 1 ...