Covestro AG, a global supplier of high-tech polymer materials, has announced the startup of a pilot plant for the chemical recycling of high-performance polyurethane elastomer Vulkollan® at its Leverkusen, Germany site, effective September 16, 2026, according to the company. The investment is reported to be in the double-digit million-euro range, and the new process is said to chemically break down end-of-life elastomer material into purified monomers, enabling recycling of more than 90% of the material by mass while cutting the carbon footprint by up to two thirds compared with virgin material.
Covestro has built a pilot-scale chemical recycling facility for elastomers at its Leverkusen site, which entered operation on September 16, 2026, the company said. The facility targets end-of-life Vulkollan®, a high-performance polyurethane elastomer widely used in forklift wheels, railway buffer elements, automotive jounce bumpers, and vibration control components. Unlike mechanical recycling, the applied technology chemically decomposes end-of-life elastomer material into pure chemical building blocks — purified monomers — that are then reintroduced into new material production, according to the company. Covestro said recycled feedstock can be reintroduced into new automotive jounce bumpers and forklift tires through a mass-balancing approach. High-performance elastomers demand durability and long service life, making downcycling effectively unviable, which the company described as a longstanding industry challenge that this chemical decomposition-and-repolymerization approach is designed to address. Covestro said the pilot plant is one of the first installations of its kind worldwide for this material class, and it also plans to use the facility to explore circular solutions for selected specialty cast elastomers and TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane), the company added.
The investment for the development and construction of the pilot plant is reported to be in the double-digit million-euro range. The recycling process is said to enable recovery of more than 90% of end-of-life Vulkollan® material by mass, with products made from the recovered feedstock reducing carbon footprint by up to two thirds compared with fossil-based virgin material, according to the company. Construction plans for the facility were first announced in December 2024, at which time technical completion was estimated to take about one year; the plant subsequently began operation on September 16, 2026, the company reported.
Covestro has set targets of climate neutrality for its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2035 and for Scope 3 emissions by 2050, and the startup of this pilot plant is seen as extending that circular-economy strategy specifically into the high-performance elastomers business. The construction plan announced in December 2024 has thus moved into actual operation roughly two years later.
Chemical recycling technology has so far been commercialized mainly for commodity plastics such as PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) and polyolefins, while cross-linked, high-performance elastomers have generally been regarded as a more difficult material class to recycle. This pilot plant can be seen as extending the application of chemical recycling into such hard-to-recycle material categories. Covestro has said it is working with customers, recyclers, waste collectors, and logistics providers to build the collection and reverse-logistics systems needed for commercialization, illustrating that building a circular material supply chain in Europe requires collaboration across the value chain, not just process technology development by a single company. As automotive and industrial equipment customers face growing pressure to reduce Scope 3 emissions, the ability to supply circular high-performance materials could become a competitive differentiator among polyurethane and elastomer producers. In the broader process technology and catalyst space, demand for chemical recycling technology development is likely to expand beyond commodity plastics into elastomers and other specialty polymers.
A key point to watch is whether and when data gathered from the pilot plant will translate into a confirmed timeline and scale for a full commercial plant. How the collection systems for end-of-life material — built through cooperation with customers, recyclers, and logistics providers, as referenced by Covestro — take concrete shape also warrants attention. It also remains to be seen when the company’s stated exploration of extending the technology to specialty cast elastomers and TPU will become a concrete application plan. In addition, whether other polyurethane and elastomer producers move to develop similar chemical recycling technologies remains a matter of industry interest.