Research projects are underway to try to recover chemicals though chemical recycling of waste PIR to reintroduce these chemicals into the future manufacture of PIR. Recovering chemicals from PIR foam can be a complex process which typically involves recycling or reprocessing methods to break down the PIR and recover polyols and/or other components.
Because the methods and technologies for chemical recovery are variable it may take some time before any economic feasibility of chemical recovery is achieved based on factors such as scaling up operations and market demand for recycled materials.