Kraiburg TPE outlines circular economy pathways for thermoplastic elastomers

Waldkraiburg, Germany – Kraiburg TPE has set out its approach to improving the circularity of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), identifying four core areas to address.

The areas include extending product lifecycles, increasing the use of alternative raw materials, designing for recyclability, and closing material loops, said a technical overview by Magdalena Michl, product management EMEA, and Andrea Winterstetter, circular economy manager at Kraiburg TPE.

At the centre of the approach is “design for sustainability,” which the company defined as addressing environmental impacts across the full product lifecycle,.

These include material selection, durability, recyclability and end-of-life treatment.

According to Kraiburg TPE, extending the service life of applications begins with selecting appropriate TPE grades and material quality.

Here, the company experts said early collaboration between component manufacturers and material suppliers is critical to meeting performance and durability requirements.

On raw materials, the company said TPE compounds increasingly incorporate recycled or bio-based content to reduce reliance on fossil resources.

These include post-industrial (PIR) and post-consumer (PCR) recycled materials, as well as mass-balanced feedstocks.

A combination of such materials allow manufacturers to “gradually reduce” fossil inputs while maintaining regulatory approvals, including in tightly regulated sectors such as food contact and medical applications.

Kraiburg TPE also pointed to the importance of “design for recycling,” noting that TPEs can be reprocessed through standard thermoplastic methods.

This enables in-process recycling at the manufacturing stage, with multiple studies examining the effects of regrind addition on material performance and processing behaviour.

At end of life, pure TPE materials can be remelted and reused.

However, the company noted that TPEs are typically used in smaller volumes than major polyolefins such as polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE), meaning dedicated recycling streams are largely absent.

To address this, Kraiburg TPE cited a joint research with the cyclos-HTP Institute examining the recyclability of styrenic TPEs (TPS) within established polyolefin waste streams.

The study assessed whether selected TPS materials could be processed alongside PP or HDPE and the impact on recyclate quality.

The results showed that a number of Kraiburg TPE TPS grades are “co-recyclable” within existing PP and HDPE streams, allowing them to be processed together without the need for separate collection systems.

The company said this finding could support broader recycling compatibility for TPE-containing components.

Beyond compatibility studies, Kraiburg TPE said closing TPE material loops requires direct involvement from material suppliers.

As part of this effort, the company has developed its “Loop TPE” programme.

Under the initiative, customers can return production waste such as sprues for reprocessing into recycling-based TPE compounds tailored to specific applications.

According to the company, the programme aims to reduce waste, lower the use of virgin raw materials and establish closed-loop solutions in the absence of established post-consumer TPE recycling streams.

Kraiburg TPE concluded that thermoplastic elastomers have “significant potential” in circular material strategies, but said progress depends on collaboration across the value chain.

Among others, the compounder noted that component manufacturers and material suppliers should collaborate to develop recycling-oriented solutions.