Tocco Report: RUBBER & ELASTOMER 2026 Edition

Elastomers in practice, specifications, trade-offs and use-cases

Every global supply chain depends on something that stretches without breaking. From the tyre tread gripping a wet road to the gasket sealing an electric motor, rubber sits quietly at the heart of modern industry. For more than a century, it has been a binary world, natural latex tapped from plantations or synthetic elastomers refined from oil. That divide is now eroding.

The next decade will see bio-rubber and renewable elastomers move from laboratory pilots to real production lines. Pressure comes from both sides: tyre manufacturers pledging 100 percent sustainable materials by 2050, and regulators tightening definitions of what counts as sustainable at all. The European Union’s Deforestation Regulation and new limits on tyre-wear microplastics mean performance is no longer the only benchmark; compliance and traceability now share equal weight.

This report by the Tocco Editorial Team maps that transition. It follows rubber’s evolution from Hevea plantations to bio-based synthetics, examines the science behind new formulations, and tests whether innovation can meet industrial reality without compromise.