The merger of Dow’s extensive experience in material science and Gruppo Fiori’s established automotive recycling system has enabled the creation of a new pathway for end-of-life vehicle materials.
Traditionally, obtaining the polymer in its pure form is a costly and complex process for recyclers, as it involves the laborious disassembly of each individual automotive component.
Dow and Gruppo Fiori eliminate this step with a solution that allows the recovery of polyurethane (PU) waste streams with sufficient purity to enable chemical depolymerization, a crucial step in transforming waste into a new resource.
This breakthrough is crucial: polyurethane is an essential component of car interiors—valued for comfort, safety, and lightness—and an average car contains up to 28 kg of it, almost half of which is in the seats alone.
The new process not only drastically reduces operational costs but also accelerates progress towards a closed-loop (or circular economy) in the automotive sector. It is now possible to recover polyurethane waste from decommissioned vehicles without having to disassemble the various internal components of the cabin.
In essence, Dow and Gruppo Fiori are giving a new, valuable life to waste that until yesterday was inevitably destined for landfill.