A study conducted by researchers at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)¹ describes a new method of recycling silicone waste, such as caulk, sealants, gels, and adhesives. The method has the potential to significantly reduce the sector’s environmental impacts. This is the first universal recycling process that brings any type of used silicone material back to an earlier state in its life cycle where each molecule has only one silicon atom. And there is no need for the raw materials currently used to design new silicones. Moreover, since it is chemical and not mechanical recycling, the reuse of the material can be carried out infinitely. The associated study was published in Science in April 2025.

The raw material used to make silicones is naturally occurring quartz². Its constituents are decomposed using metallurgy at high temperature to obtain pure silicon. That then reacts with methyl chloride to form chlorosilanes, molecules essential to all silicone-based polymers. These first two transformations are very energy intensive and emit CO₂, the main greenhouse gas causing climate change. Consequently, this new recycling technique would make it possible to circumvent one of the most harmful impacts of the silicone sector. Moreover, as this chemical recycling process gives direct access to (methyl)chlorosilanes, which can be separated and purified industrially, it guarantees the quality of silicone materials from recycling and can do that infinitely without loss of properties.