Silicone Recycling in India: How Industrial Silicone Waste Becomes New Material
Silicone recycling recovers cured silicone scrap and spent silicone material and reprocesses it back into industrial-grade silicone oils — instead of sending it to landfill. In India, where industry produces a steady stream of silicone rubber, seals and insulators every year, recycling closes a loop that otherwise leaks both material and money.
What is silicone recycling?
Silicone is prized in industry for a reason: it is thermally stable, chemically inert, water-repellent and long-lasting. Those same qualities make it stubborn at end of life. Cured silicone does not simply break down, and burning or burying it wastes a material that took energy and crude-oil-derived feedstock to make in the first place.
Silicone recycling solves that. Through controlled depolymerisation — thermally cracking cured silicone back into its reactive building blocks — waste silicone can be cleaned, distilled and rebuilt into fresh, usable silicone oil. The output is PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) and DMC (dimethyl cyclosiloxane): the same industrial-grade fluids the market would otherwise produce from virgin feedstock.
Why it matters now in India
India generated an estimated 13.97 lakh metric tonnes of e-waste in FY 2024–25 (Central Pollution Control Board), and silicone is part of that stream — in keypads, insulators and seals — alongside the far larger volume of silicone rubber, gaskets, mould scrap and spent fluids that manufacturing produces every day.
The regulatory direction is clear too. The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, in force since 1 April 2023, place the responsibility for end-of-life handling on producers and the downstream ecosystem through Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). For manufacturers, a credible recycling route is no longer optional housekeeping — it is part of staying compliant and competitive.
The short version: virgin silicone is energy-intensive and tied to crude-oil-derived feedstock. Recycling recovers most of that value, keeps usable material out of landfill, and gives manufacturers a domestic, traceable supply that is less exposed to import and feedstock price swings.
How silicone is recycled: the 7-stage process
Recycling cured silicone into specification-consistent oil is a controlled chemical process, not a simple clean-and-reuse. At Ecovalley, it runs in seven stages:
- Collection — sourcing industrial silicone waste: rubber scrap, insulators, keypads, mould residue and obsolete inventory from partner industries.
- Sorting & Shredding — material is classified by type and grade, then mechanically reduced.
- High-Temperature Cracking — thermal breakdown of cured silicone polymers back into reactive siloxane precursors.
- Filtration & Distillation — impurities are separated and target fractions are distilled for purity.
- Re-Polymerization — controlled re-polymerisation to the specific viscosity and grade the customer needs.
- Quality Testing — every batch is verified for viscosity, flash point, specific gravity and refractive index before release.
- Packaging & Dispatch — filled into 200 kg and 50 kg HDPE barrels for safe storage and transport.
The critical word is controlled. Because the chain is cracked back to precursors and rebuilt, the finished oil is engineered to a target viscosity — not whatever the scrap happened to be.
What gets recovered
Two industrial-grade products come out the other side. PDMS silicone oil is supplied in a range of viscosity grades; the headline ranges are below.
| Product Code | Viscosity (cSt @ 25 °C) | Flash Point | Specific Gravity |
|---|---|---|---|
| S201-100 | 90 – 110 | 280 ± 20 °C | 0.96 – 0.97 |
| S201-350 | 300 – 400 | 280 ± 20 °C | 0.96 – 0.97 |
| S201-500 | 450 – 550 | 280 ± 20 °C | 0.96 – 0.97 |
| S201-1000 | 900 – 1100 | 280 ± 20 °C | 0.96 – 0.97 |
The second product is DMC (dimethyl cyclosiloxane, CAS 69430-24-6) — a clear, low-viscosity cyclic siloxane mixture used as an intermediate and processing medium in silicone manufacturing. Full specifications for both sit on the Products page, with downloadable technical data sheets.
The benefits of recycled silicone
- Lower embodied carbon in the finished product, versus virgin silicone production.
- A measurable circular-economy story for ESG and EPR reporting.
- Pricing decoupled from virgin-feedstock and import volatility.
- A short, traceable, domestic supply chain — all within India.
Recycling silicone in India: Ecovalley's track record
Ecovalley Silicones has run this loop since 2016, from a corporate office in Delhi and a manufacturing unit in Sonipat, Haryana. To date the company has recycled 11,700+ tonnes of silicone and avoided an estimated 23,400+ tonnes of CO₂, serving seven industries — textiles, automotive, electrical & electronics, rubber & plastics, paints & coatings, insulation & dampening, and specialty formulations.
Frequently asked questions
What is silicone recycling?
Silicone recycling is the recovery of cured silicone scrap and spent silicone material and its reprocessing back into usable industrial-grade silicone oils, such as PDMS and DMC, instead of sending it to landfill or incineration.
Can silicone actually be recycled?
Yes. Cured silicone rubber and scrap can be thermally depolymerised back into reactive siloxane precursors, then filtered, distilled and re-polymerised to a target viscosity — yielding industrial-grade silicone oil that returns to the same applications virgin material would serve.
What is recovered from silicone recycling?
The main recovered products are PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) silicone oil in a range of viscosity grades, and DMC (dimethyl cyclosiloxane), a cyclic siloxane mixture used as an intermediate and processing medium.
Is recycled silicone oil as good as virgin silicone oil?
Recycled silicone oil made through controlled depolymerisation and re-polymerisation is industrial-grade and batch-tested for viscosity, flash point, specific gravity and refractive index. It meets the functional specifications industrial buyers require, while decoupling cost from virgin-feedstock volatility.
Who recycles silicone in India?
Ecovalley Silicones Pvt. Ltd., established in 2016, recycles industrial silicone waste into industrial-grade PDMS and DMC from its plant in Sonipat, Haryana, with a corporate office in Delhi.
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