Save decaying rubber bands?

December 15, 2020 12:59 PM

I bought a bunch of rubber bands (natural rubber) and a significant proportion of the box has gotten to that crunch stage of aging rubber. The bands are slightly speciality (four way bands) and I would like to salvage as many as possible and delay continued damage. I don't know how these have been stored other than in a closed but not otherwise sealed cardboard box.
posted by Iteki to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Best answer: Sadly, there is not a way to save them. Rubber needs to be used to prevent it from starting to break down. Next time look for rubber bands that are acid free, they are specifically made to not break down and they are what I have used in my school libraries to avoid the inevitable breakdown of normal office rubber bands.
posted by momochan at 1:10 PM on December 15, 2020 [5 favorites]

The best way to delay the oxidation that causes rubber bands to go bad is to (a) keep them in the dark, and (b) keep them in a zip-lock bag with most of the air squeezed out. There's nothing you can do to reverse the process once they've gone brittle, however.
posted by pipeski at 1:28 PM on December 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

Whatever is left that is still elastic (and I wouldn't count on it being much) might have it's life extended marginally by storing in a cool place, in a sealed zip-lock type bag with as much air pressed out as is practical. Pretty much everything flexible degrades eventually through oxidation, outgassing of plasticizers, UV damage, ozone damage, etc, etc. It runs counter to my thrifty "buy in bulk" tendencies, but it is sometimes best to only buy what you need for the immediate use, because some stuff just doesn't last.
posted by coppertop at 1:29 PM on December 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

I don't think you can depend on those anymore. I'd go ahead and order more and put _those_ in the freezer (and I'd leave 1-2 out just in case they decayed faster and I could prove/experience SCIENCE).
posted by amtho at 1:43 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Mr. Countrymod has a lot of very specialized car goos (and hardware/house goos). One of the goos I reference most frequently is "gummy pflege" which was originally used to condition aging rubber weather stripping on a car.

I have no idea how much this rubber conditioner would do for your rubber bands. Quite likely the elasticity/usability is beyond recovery and gummi fplege would only slight moisten but not infuse new life. But who knows? This stuff is kind of unicorn like for rubber and it has the best product name ever.

Here's one variety of product:
https://www.amazon.com/nextzett-91480615-Gummi-Pflege-Rubber/dp/B004B8GTQG
posted by countrymod at 6:28 PM on December 15, 2020 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I will keep an eye out for Gummi Pfledge but also understand that perhaps their time has come. I will also complain to the company cos I mean a discount is one thing, but if the product is fucked then say so. The thing of rubber needs to be used; would there be any benefit to going through them and stretching them all a couple of times? I mean apart from identifying the ones that are banjaxed, would it help the others remember they are alive?
posted by Iteki at 9:14 AM on December 16, 2020

Generally cold temperatures slow down (nearly) all chemical reactions, so on top of what everyone has suggested above (dark, ziploc or multiple layers of ziploc with air squeezed out etc), keeping in a cool place, or a refrigerator, or even in a freezer might slow down any degradation somewhat.
posted by flug at 12:42 PM on December 16, 2020