Is it Possible to Recycle TPU-Coated Textiles – And is it the Best Option?

Recycling TPU-coated textiles is technically possible, but accessibility is the real bottleneck. Chemical processes exist that can separate the coating, base fabric, additives, and the solvents used in the breakdown process. Recycling carries real advantages: it can sharply cut scrap waste, save on disposal costs, and conserve raw materials. The catch is infrastructure. Facilities that can separate coating from base material are still scarce, which keeps recycling expensive at best, and for most manufacturers, simply out of reach.

There’s also a sustainability question buried inside the recycling question. The chemical processes and energy load required to break down coated textiles aren’t automatically the lower-impact choice. For much of the coated-textile manufacturing industry, reuse, not recycling, is turning out to be the more realistic route toward sustainability.

Here’s how chemical recycling actually works, what’s limiting it at scale, and why reuse is worth taking seriously as an alternative.

How TPU and PVC/TPU Coated Textile Recycling Works

 Chemical recycling starts with a mechanical step, shredding, grinding, or beating the textile (sometimes with a sieving stage) to masticate the material into smaller pieces. That mash then goes into a solvent bath, where the material breaks down into its chemical components. Depending on the process, one or more intermediary compounds form before the material reaches polyols, the raw material used to manufacture polyurethanes. Some methods add heat and a specific gas, like hydrogen, to break the chemical bonds.

There are several established processes used for PVC/TPU coated textile recycling, each suited to different starting material and end goals:

Glycolysis: Mixed industrial and post-consumer polyurethanes are combined with co-monomer diols, such as ethylene glycol, under high heat to trigger a reaction that produces new polyols.

Hydrolysis: Used polyurethanes react with water, producing polyols plus intermediate chemicals. The polyols can be used as fuel; the intermediates become raw material for new polyurethane.

Pyrolysis: High heat in an oxygen-free environment breaks polyurethanes down into gas and oils.

Hydrogenation: Similar to pyrolysis, but combines heat, pressure, and hydrogen to produce gas and oil from used polyurethanes.

Once separated, the resulting polyols are cleaned, condensed into powder or pellets, and used to make new coating material. These recovered polyols retain the properties of the original material and can be used the same way.

One real-world example worth knowing: Texyloop, a chemical recycling process developed by coated-textile manufacturer Serge Ferrari with Solvay, has run at industrial scale since 2008 and has processed more than 13 million m² of PVC-coated polyester into second-generation raw materials. It’s a useful proof point that chemical recycling of coated textiles works. It also illustrates the limitation: it depends on a dedicated collection network of partner companies, not a universally available recycling stream.

Why Chemical Recycling of Coated Textiles Is Still Limited

Despite working processes like the ones above, chemical recycling of coated textiles is still expensive, logistically demanding, and inflexible at scale. Few plants exist, and the ones that do tend to be small or tied to a single manufacturer’s own collection program. That combination keeps recycling out of reach for most of the market, even when the underlying chemistry is straightforward.

The European TARPAULIFE Project, launched in 2024, is a sign the industry hasn’t given up on solving this. It’s exploring polyolefin-coated fabrics as a more easily recyclable alternative to PVC-coated tarpaulins, precisely because PVC-coated material remains so hard to recycle at scale today.

Coated Textile Reuse: A More Practical Path to Sustainable EOL

Given the constraints on chemical recycling, reuse has become the more viable, and arguably more sustainable, end-of-life (EOL) strategy for coated textiles. Most of the industry’s progress here falls into two categories: extending the service life of new products, and finding second-life uses for products that have reached the end of theirs. Erez works in both.

By building the highest-quality products possible, Erez aims to reduce how much new coated textile material enters the environment in the first place. And because Erez works exclusively with weldable coatings, torn or damaged products can often be re-welded rather than discarded.

Coated textile reuse itself takes many forms. Erez partners with manufacturers worldwide who specialize in repurposing coated textiles at the end of their product life into second-life products, from woven mattresses to water containment for livestock. The possibilities are broad, and we’ll cover specific reuse pathways in more depth in a future article.

If you’re working toward a more sustainable product lifecycle for your coated textiles, an Erez specialist can help you assess where recycling makes sense, where reuse is the better option, and how to plan for both – Contact us today

FAQ: Rycycle TPU and Reusing TPU-Coated Textiles

• Q: Is polyurethane-coated fabric recyclable?

Yes, technically. Chemical recycling processes like glycolysis, hydrolysis, pyrolysis, and hydrogenation can separate polyurethane coatings from their base fabric and convert them into reusable polyols. The challenge isn’t the chemistry, it’s the limited number of facilities able to do it at scale.

• Q: What is chemical recycling of polyurethane?

Chemical recycling breaks polyurethane down into its raw chemical components, typically polyols, rather than simply reprocessing it physically. The recovered polyols can be used to manufacture new coating material with the same properties as virgin material.

• Is there a sustainable coated textile option if recycling isn’t practical?

Often, yes. For many manufacturers, extending product life and reusing or repurposing coated textiles at end-of-life is currently a more accessible, and arguably more sustainable, path than chemical recycling.

• Can TPU-coated textiles be reused instead of recycled?

In many cases, yes. Weldable coatings allow torn or damaged products to be repaired rather than discarded, and used coated textiles can often be repurposed into second-life products instead of going through chemical recycling.