ECO USA collects and recycles all types of silicone based specialty chemicals. As our recycling process is quite robust, we collect many types of expired and surplus silanes, siloxanes, and dimethicones. These are silicone based liquids we use as raw materials for recycling into polydimethylsiloxane, a common type of silicone oil used in numerous industrial applications.
The surplus or expired silicone liquids we collect are throughly tested when it arrives at our plant to check for compatibility with our recycling process. Once the silane, siloxane, and dimethicone material stream passes the testing phase, the materials are poured into large chemical reactors and undergo a process called chemical cracking. The feed material is heated to high temperatures along with catalysts to help speed up reaction times. Step one of our recycling process breaks down the long chains of the siloxane, silane and dimethicone polymers into smaller dimethylcyclosiloxane (DMC for short) units.
We will not go over the entire silicone recycling process in this article, if you’re interested in learning more, click here for a detailed explanation of our silicone recycling process.
As our final product is silicone oil, the feed material stream we collect requires a high purity of silane, siloxane, or dimethicone content. If you’re unsure wether the surplus or expired silicone liquid stream you have is recyclable, get in contact with us. Please gather as much information about the material stream as possible including the volume, SDS / TDS, and product application.
A common siloxane we collect for recycling are from the cosmetic industry including octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4) and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5). We also collect all sort of silicone emulsions with high siloxane content.
Click here to see examples of various wide-spec, surplus, and expired dimethicone liquids we collect for recycling.
YES! Products made from silicone rubber such as baking mats, kitchen utensils, baby bottles and pacifiers are recyclable and can be recycled. At ECO USA, we're the first and currently only full-scale silicone recycling plant in the USA.
Uncured silicone rubber contains polymers of different chain lengths. It always comprises a principal silicon-oxygen chain (the siloxane backbone) and an organic moiety bound to the silicon.
Commonly labelled as a “cyclomethicone” or “cyclosiloxane”, D4 and D5 (octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane repectively) are common ingredients in the cosmetic industry...
