Only 8% of EMEA polyurethane foam waste recycled, study finds

Only around 8% of end-of-life polyurethane foam in Europe, the Middle East and Africa is recycled, according to a new study mapping the material’s production, use and disposal across the region.

Researchers estimated that EMEA produced approximately four million tonnes of flexible and rigid polyurethane foam in the study’s 2020 baseline year. Most discarded material was sent to landfill or incinerated.

Flexible foam accounted for just over two million tonnes of production and was used predominantly in cushioning products such as mattresses, upholstered furniture and vehicle seating.

Rigid polyurethane and polyisocyanurate foam production totalled approximately 1.8 million tonnes. Its principal applications included building insulation, refrigeration equipment, insulated panels, pipes and one-component foams.

The researchers combined market information, published literature and expert input using both top-down and bottom-up calculations. Independent estimates were reconciled to produce what the authors describe as the first polyurethane foam-specific material-flow analysis covering the EMEA region.

The study also considered the quantities of MDI, TDI and polyols required for regional foam production, as well as manufacturing losses, in-use stocks and end-of-life waste.

Although current post-consumer waste volumes are relatively low compared with annual production, the researchers said this largely reflects the long service life of rigid insulation products. Much of the foam installed in buildings and appliances remains in use and has not yet entered the waste stream.

Waste volumes are consequently expected to rise substantially as this accumulated stock reaches the end of its service life.

Flexible foam creates a different waste profile. Mattresses, furniture and automotive seating generally have shorter service lives than building insulation, bringing cushioning foam into the waste stream sooner.

The study found that established recycling routes handle only a small proportion of the region’s discarded PU foam. Mechanical recycling is used for some relatively clean flexible-foam waste, including material converted into rebonded carpet underlay and cushioning products.

However, the diversity of polyurethane formulations, contamination in post-consumer products and the crosslinked structure of many foams make separation and recycling difficult. Mixed waste streams can also contain textiles, metals, wood, adhesives and other materials.

Chemical recycling processes such as glycolysis could recover polyols from a broader range of foam waste, but the authors said scalable collection, sorting and processing infrastructure would be needed to increase recycling significantly.

The researchers cautioned that their results provide a regional baseline rather than exact product-level mass balances. The analysis relies mainly on 2020 data, or information extrapolated to that year, because more recent comprehensive datasets were unavailable.

The study was conducted by Matthew Porters, Cristina Moyaert, Muhammad Adeel, Christophe de Graaf, Zoë De Herdt, Denis Hicks, Christophe Vande Velde, Philippe Nimmegeers and Pieter Billen.

“Material flow analysis of polyurethane foams in the EMEA region: Mapping waste streams and circular economy opportunities” was published in Resources, Conservation and Recycling.