An approach to the problem of removal of epoxy materials is to include a selectively cleavable unit with each epoxy molecule so that the network can be degraded to small, soluble molecular fragments by the use of selective reagents not normally found in the environment. Epoxy resins have been synthesized containing olefinic bonds which can be cleaved with strong oxidizing agents such as potassium permanganate, and other resins which contain tertiary carbamate units cleavable by warm acidic solutions. The chemistry of these syntheses is described, and some applications on coatings are illustrated. -- AATA