If you’ve ever stood on the production floor of an O seal ring facility, like I do every day, you know one question comes up more than any other right now: Can O seal rings actually be made from recycled materials? For years, we as suppliers stuck to the same playbook—virgin rubber, precision molds, no shortcuts. But lately, with clients asking for greener parts, waste reduction targets looming, and raw material prices swinging wildly, I’ve spent a lot of late nights digging into this. The short answer? Yes, we can, and we’re already doing it for a growing list of clients. Let’s break this down without the jargon, because this isn’t just a sustainability buzzword—it’s a functional, workable shift that’s changed how we run our shop. O Seal Ring
First, let’s get one myth out of the way: recycled O seals aren’t just ground-up old tires slapped into a mold. For anyone who’s worked with O seals, you know their whole job is to hold pressure, seal out moisture, stand up to extreme temperatures, and last for years—usually in places where a failed seal means a factory line shuts down, or a piece of industrial equipment takes hours to repair. If a recycled seal fails, that’s not a sustainability win—that’s a costly, unplanned downtime headache. So the process starts with sorting the right kind of waste, not just any rubber. Most of the recycled rubber we use comes from post-industrial manufacturing scrap—off-cuts from new seal production, rejected parts that didn’t pass QA, and even clean, unvulcanized rubber trimmings from other industrial goods. That’s way better than post-consumer waste (old hoses, tire scraps), because post-industrial scrap is almost always the exact same polymer, no cross-contamination, and we know its quality from the start. Vulcanized post-consumer rubber can be tricky, because once rubber is cured, it’s hard to reprocess without breaking down its molecular structure—we’ll get to that later.
The next step is reclaiming that rubber, and that’s where most of the magic happens. Reclaiming isn’t just grinding rubber into powder. We take the scrap, clean it to remove any fabric, metal, or chemical residue, then process it through a rigorous devulcanization method. Devulcanization breaks the strong chemical bonds that hold cured rubber together, turning it back into a malleable, workable compound almost like virgin rubber—without sacrificing its durability. Early on, we tested low-grade devulcanized rubber, and those first test seals cracked under 100 psi of pressure in our pressure chamber. But modern devulcanization technology has come a long way in the last five years. Today, we can blend reclaimed rubber with small amounts of virgin polymer (usually 10-20%, depending on the application) to adjust its properties—adding extra heat resistance for use in automotive engines, making it oil-resistant for hydraulic lines, whatever the client needs. For high-stakes applications, like food and beverage processing equipment, we make sure the recycled rubber meets FDA standards, too—something that’s non-negotiable for us, because one bad batch could ruin our reputation.
I know what some of you are thinking: “Sustainability is great, but will these seals last as long as virgin ones?” That’s the question we get most from maintenance managers and engineers, and it’s fair. We ran a six-month test last year with a large agricultural equipment manufacturer. They put 500 recycled O seals and 500 virgin seals on their tractor hydraulic lines, running through dusty, extreme temperature ranges (from -20°F in winter to 110°F in summer). At the end of the test, 98.2% of the recycled seals were still holding pressure, compared to 98.7% of the virgin ones. The tiny difference? The recycled seals wore slightly faster in the most abrasive, high-vibration parts of the lines, but for 95% of their use cases, they performed exactly the same. For most industrial and commercial applications, that’s more than enough. We’ve also had clients in the plumbing industry switch to our recycled EPDM O seals for water lines, and they report no customer complaints in the 18 months since the change.
There are limits, of course. We don’t recommend recycled seals for applications that demand the highest performance, like aerospace hydraulic systems or extreme high-temperature industrial furnaces, where a 1% failure rate isn’t acceptable. But for the vast majority of O seal use cases—automotive general assemblies, agricultural machinery, HVAC systems, plumbing, consumer appliances, even some medical equipment that doesn’t involve sterile, high-pressure procedures—recycled O seals work just as well, if not better, than virgin ones.
The other big win? Environmental impact. Let’s do a quick numbers check. For every ton of recycled rubber we use instead of virgin rubber, we save approximately 22 gallons of oil (virgin rubber is made from petroleum), cut carbon emissions by 3.1 tons, and keep 1.1 tons of waste out of landfills. That’s not just a stat for our website—those numbers come from our own waste logs. Last year, we diverted 12,000 pounds of rubber scrap from the landfill, and switched 15% of our production to recycled materials. This year, we’re on track to hit 30%. That’s not just good for the planet—it’s good for our clients, too. Raw material costs for virgin rubber have jumped 18% in the last two years, so using recycled rubber often cuts our seal prices by 10-15%, without compromising quality. It’s a win-win.
I’ll be honest, it wasn’t easy getting here. Three years ago, we tried to jump into recycled seals with a cheap, unvetted supplier, and we got a batch of seals that failed pressure tests 20% of the time. We had to scrap the entire batch, issue refunds to three clients, and spend three months reworking our process. That set us back, but it taught us a critical lesson: you can’t cut corners on recycled materials, any more than you can on virgin ones. Since then, we’ve partnered with a local reclaimer that has ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications, so we know every batch of rubber comes with a full material safety data sheet, and we test every batch of recycled seals in our in-house lab before they leave our facility. We do compression set tests, pressure tests, temperature resistance tests, and even ozone exposure tests, same as we do for virgin seals. There’s no special treatment—quality is non-negotiable.
Another common question: What about end-of-life for these recycled seals? A lot of clients ask if they’ll just become more waste when they reach the end of their lifespan. The answer is, we’re working on that, too. For now, we have a take-back program for all the seals we supply, so we can recycle them back into new seals at the end of their life. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. We’re also testing seal compounds that are both recyclable and biodegradable, so eventually, they won’t even need a take-back program. But that’s still in the R&D phase, so for now, the closed-loop take-back is our way of making sure even the recycled seals we make don’t become waste.
I think a lot of manufacturers get stuck in the mindset that sustainability means sacrificing quality or profit. For years, we did too. We thought we had to choose between making a great seal and doing right by the planet. What we’ve learned is that those two things don’t have to be opposites. Our recycled O seals have helped our clients hit their own ESG targets, reduced our production waste, and kept our prices competitive, all without compromising on the performance our clients rely on.
If you’re someone who’s been eyeing recycled parts but worried about reliability, I’d encourage you to test a small batch first. We offer free sample packs of our recycled seals, so you can run your own tests in your equipment, no strings attached. We’ve had engineering teams tell us they were skeptical at first, but after testing, they switched their entire line of parts to recycled seals. It’s not a gimmick. It’s a real, practical change that works.
At the end of the day, O seal rings are one of the most common, most critical parts in almost every industry. Millions of them are made every month, all over the world. If even 30% of those could be made from recycled materials, that would keep millions of tons of waste out of landfills and cut billions of gallons of oil use every year. It’s not a huge, sweeping change, but it’s a start—one that we’ve been building here, one seal at a time.
If you’re interested in learning more about our recycled O seal lines, or want to discuss a custom project for your equipment, feel free to reach out and connect with our team to talk through your needs. We’re here to help you find a seal that works for both your equipment and your sustainability goals.
Rubber O Ring Cord References:
- International Organization for Standardization. ISO 14001:2015, Environmental management systems — Requirements with guidance for use. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization, 2015.
- American Society for Testing and Materials. ASTM D2000-18, Standard Classification System for Rubber Products in Automotive Applications. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM International, 2018.
- Rubber Manufacturers Association. Reclaimed Rubber Industry: Environmental and Economic Impact. Washington, D.C.: Rubber Manufacturers Association, 2022.
- Food and Drug Administration. Title 21 CFR Part 177, Indirect Food Additives: Polymers. Silver Spring, MD: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2023.
- Society of Plastics Engineers. “Devulcanization Technologies for Rubber Recycling: A 2023 Update.” Rubber Recycling Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, 2023, pp. 12-18.
DEDE SEAL Co., Ltd.
DEDE Seal Co., Ltd. is one of the most experienced o seal ring manufacturers and suppliers in China for over 35 years, featured by quality products and good price. Please feel free to buy bulk customized o seal ring made in China here from our factory. Welcome to contact us for pricelist.
Address: Hunan Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, China
E-mail: info@dedeseal.com
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