Toray Develops Technology for Recycling Nylon in Airbags, Aiming for Large-scale Use in FY30

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:39 JST, February 20, 2025

Toray Industries, Inc. said Wednesday that it had developed a technology to recycle nylon 66, a type of nylon polymer used in automotive airbags and other products.

The company aims to mass-produce products made from recycled nylon 66 from around fiscal 2030. Compared to the conventional way of producing the nylon from oil, the new technology can halve the amount of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the company.

Previously, there had been no technology for recycling nylon 66, but Toray developed a method to chemically decompose the polymers and quickly recover the raw material. The law requires that used automotive airbags be collected for safe disposal, but most of these had been incinerated since the nylon could not be recycled.

Amid the push to decarbonize, major automakers have used more recycled materials for their parts. Toray decided it could expect a growth in demand for recycled nylon 66.