Power of Circular PU: A Sustainable Breakthrough

♻️ Power of Circular PU: A Sustainable Breakthrough In a world increasingly focused on sustainability, transforming waste into reusable resources has become a key challenge for the manufacturing industry. Our team recently completed a milestone recycling experiment: converting discarded PU synthetic leather into recycled polyols, which were then used to produce new PU leather—ultimately applied in the creation of a fully recyclable backpack. This marks a true achievement in material circularity.
 
🧪 Recycling Process Overview The raw material for this case was discarded PU synthetic leather with a polyester nonwoven base. Through chemical depolymerization, we successfully broke down its structure and extracted reusable polyols. These recycled polyols demonstrated excellent reactivity and stability, making them suitable for producing new PU synthetic leather.
 
🎒 Circular Backpack Design The newly produced PU leather meets commercial performance standards and was used to manufacture a backpack. The design uses only polyester cords and PU synthetic leather (with a nonwoven polyester base), ensuring material uniformity and full recyclability. It is the first backpack designed for complete material recovery and remanufacturing.
This approach not only enhances durability and aesthetics but also enables the backpack to re-enter the recycling process at the end of its life—converted back into polyols and then into new PU leather, forming a true closed-loop cycle.
 
🌍 Sustainability Impact & Outlook
This case proves the feasibility of PU leather recycling and highlights how material design and product development can jointly advance the circular economy. Through single-material design, innovative recycling technology, and expanded application scenarios, we are steadily realizing the vision of “waste to renewal.”
Looking ahead, we will continue to improve recycling efficiency, explore new applications, and collaborate with more brands and manufacturers to promote recyclable materials across fashion, sports, and everyday products.