The reaction of tyre rubber crumb with nitrous oxide (N2O) in an organic solvent at 180–230 °C and pressure of 3–5 MPa was studied. The process is accompanied by controllable destruction of vulcanised rubber with the formation of a plastic reclaim product consisting of a sol and gel fractions. The amount of the sol fraction increases proportionally to the conversion of the rubber Cdouble bondC bonds in the reaction with N2O and can be regarded as a measure of the degree of vulcanisate destruction. The method is applicable to the recycling of both rubber crumb and tyre chips.