A somewhat related subject : growing mounds of old rubber tires. Once in a Popular Science(or Mechanics)article, I read about a couple of guys down south somewhere that had worked out this process : cut the tires up into small chunks, then drop them into a bath of liquid lead. The steel cords drop to the bottom and the rubber molecules, as froth, come to the top. Thus you skim off the froth as feed stock for new tires. Sounded like it might work as a rubber tire recycling process, instead of just burying them in these ever growing mountains of old tires. Recycling old tires, like old oil fields is GREAT, if it's economically viable. Does anyone here know any thing more about this idea?
Yes there is. Search "microwave oil shale" and you will find some companies working on tires as well as shale.