Covestro, a world-leading supplier of high-tech polymer materials, is announcing plans to build a pilot plant for recycling of elastomers. The investment in the double-digit million euro range is used to fund the development and construction project of the state-of-the-art pilot plant at Covestro's site in Leverkusen, Germany. The construction is estimated to take about one year until technical completion.

This technological development to recycle Vulkollan marks an important step towards more sustainability in the elastomers industry. The technology enables to not only recycle a mass fraction of more than 90% of the end-of-life material like forklift tires, but also to reduce the carbon footprint by up to two thirds compared to virgin material.

“The pilot plant and with it our commitment to proving the feasibility of recycling for elastomers demonstrates our clear commitment for circular solutions and marks an important milestone for our elastomer products”, states Dr. Thomas Braig, Head of the Elastomers business entity. “With the successful scale-up of this new recycling process we address the demand of our customers for end-of-life solutions and carbon footprint reduction while assuring the high quality of our elastomer products. At the same time, this pilot plant is an invitation for players along the value chain to cooperate on developing a circular setup and the reverse value chain for end-of-life materials.”

The new chemical recycling process is a game-changer for the elastomers industry. Unlike mechanical recycling methods, this approach breaks down elastomeric end-of-life material into its chemical building blocks, to obtain purified monomers that can be re-used for these materials with known and proven quality.

"The new chemical recycling process addresses the unique challenges of elastomer materials, which are trusted to be very resistant and long lasting. Downcycling is not an option for this high-performance application,” explains Markus Dugal, Head of Process Technology at Covestro. “This technology allows us to recycle a high mass fraction of the end-of-life material and, in this way, to reduce the environmental impact of our elastomer production. It is a testament to Covestro's innovative spirit."