Closing the Loop on Insulation: Inside Recticel Insulation’s Recycled Polyol Breakthrough
As the construction sector faces increasing pressure to decarbonise and embrace circularity, Recticel Insulation is taking a decisive step forward. With the launch of its industry-leading recycled Polyol plant, the company is demonstrating how circular innovation can be embedded directly into core manufacturing - at scale.
The new facility will convert post-industrial PIR waste into high-quality recycled Polyol, which is then reused in the production of new insulation boards. To understand the ambition behind the project, we spoke with Ward Dhaese, Innovation Manager, and Dirk Vermeulen, Head of Technical Management, about why Recticel chose to invest in this solution, what sets it apart, and how it fits into the company’s wider circularity journey.
The starting point for the project was deceptively simple. Like all insulation manufacturers, Recticel generates unavoidable production waste when PIR boards are cut to size. Historically, this material had limited reuse options at large scale. Rather than accepting this as an industry norm, Recticel saw this as an opportunity.
“At its core, the project started with a simple ambition: to eliminate production waste,” explains Ward Dhaese. “Instead of seeing PIR dust as a problem, we saw it as a valuable resource that could be brought back into our own production process.”
This ambition aligns with a broader shift away from linear production models. Circularity has become a central pillar of sustainability strategies across the construction value chain. For Recticel, that meant looking first at its own operations.
“PIR is at the heart of our insulation business,” Ward continues. “Around 99% of what we produce is PIR-based, so from a circularity perspective it made sense to close the loop on our own waste streams caused by production of PIR”
Delivering impact at scale
Chemical recycling of PIR is not entirely new, but Recticel’s approach stands out for its scale and level of integration. While many initiatives in the market remain at pilot stage, Recticel has designed its plant for continuous, industrial production.
“Our facility is designed to operate 24 hours a day, at scale,” Dirk explains. “At launch, it will be able to recycle up to 4,000 tonnes of PIR waste annually into around 6,000 tonnes of recycled Polyol. We expect this capacity to increase over time.”
This scale matters, not just technically, but commercially. In fact thanks to the scale of the project, Recticel can integrate recycled Polyol across its wider insulation portfolio.
“That’s a key difference,” says Ward. “Because of the volumes we can handle, circularity becomes part of the mainstream product offering, not an exception.”
Virgin Polyol is a significant contributor to the carbon footprint of PIR insulation, accounting for around 15% of Recticel Insulations boards’ carbon footprint. With this initiative, Recticel is looking to replace a 1/3rd of the virgin Polyol in its PIR boards with the recycled Polyol, which is expected to deliver a 30–50% reduction in carbon emissions compared to the virgin material. These reductions will be confirmed thanks to full lifecycle assessments and EPD work which will be completed once the plant has been operating at scale. Nonetheless, these reductions are expected to translate into a meaningful decrease in the cradle-to-gate footprint of Recticel’s insulation boards.
Performance without compromise
A common concern around recycled materials is performance. According to Recticel, this has not been a trade-off.
“The challenge wasn’t whether recycling was possible, the chemical process of Glycolysis used to convert PIR waste into recycled Polyol is well known,” Ward explains. “The real challenge was achieving a Polyol quality that meets our performance standards.” Through dedicated R&D and proprietary process design, the company has succeeded. In fact, early results suggest that the recycled polyol can even deliver small performance improvements in insulation properties.
“We are not talking about radical changes,” Dirk notes, “but in our industry, all gains matter. The key point is that performance is maintained, while circularity and sustainability are significantly improved.”
A foundation for the future
Beyond its immediate impact, the recycled Polyol plant lays the groundwork for future circular initiatives; from expanding recycled content to exploring take-back schemes for construction and demolition waste, ultimately closing the loop also at consumption in addition to production stage.
“This project is a first major step,” Ward reflects. “By proving that we can recycle PIR without degrading performance, we open the door to future solutions that go even further.”
With the launch of its recycled Polyol plant, Recticel Insulation is not just responding to sustainability expectations - it is reshaping how circularity can work in practice, at industrial scale.