Topcentral® Leads National Standard for Recycled PBT Materials, Enters Approval Stage

A critical new standard, bridging a regulatory gap, is moving from the lab to the top-level design of the industrial chain.

Recently, the Standardization Administration of China officially approved the initiation of the national standard project titled “Plastics — Recycled Plastics — Part 10: Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) Materials.” The project is led by Topcentral® New Materials Co., Ltd. as the primary drafting unit, with its founder and CEO Ma Yiming serving as the lead drafter. This standard falls under the National Technical Committee for Plastics Standardization (TC15), overseen by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, and is expected to take effect six months after publication.

This milestone not only represents a major technological breakthrough for Topcentral®, but also highlights the company's leading role in standardizing the industry and advancing the circular economy in polymer materials. As part of the broader recycled plastics standard system, the standard fills a national gap in the grading and application specifications for recycled PBT materials.

PBT, a high-performance engineering plastic, is widely used in automotive components, electronics, and refrigeration equipment. In the rapidly developing new energy vehicle sector, flame-retardant PBT has become the preferred choice for key electronic parts. However, the recycling of PBT faces technical bottlenecks—traditional processes struggle to separate coatings and prevent degradation, limiting recycled PBT to downgraded uses. Meanwhile, demand for high-performance recycled materials is surging, especially as the EU's New Circular Economy Action Plan drives certification for advanced recycled materials.

In this context, Topcentral® took the lead in drafting the recycled PBT national standard, aiming to establish a scientific performance evaluation system, regulate the classification and application of recycled materials, and provide a unified quality benchmark for the industry. Topcentral® has also signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with SABIC, identifying the joint advancement of the PBT standard as a key initiative to drive global alignment.

As the lead drafting entity, Topcentral® developed a “zero-waste, low-carbon” process to efficiently separate composite materials, solving the challenge of recovering coated automotive headlight materials — a model solution for coated PBT waste treatment. With the integration of its proprietary Back2Circle® traceability technology, the company can track the full lifecycle carbon footprint of the material. Ma Yiming, as lead drafter, also serves as a member of the Modified Plastics and Recycled Plastics Subcommittee of the national committee, and has contributed to four national standards — three of which have already been issued. He also led the drafting of a group standard titled “Quality Grading and Acceptance of Plastics from Disassembled Electronic Waste.”

The implementation of this standard is expected to upgrade the industry, regulate high-value applications of recycled PBT in automotive, electronics, and refrigeration sectors, and help companies overcome EU REACH compliance barriers. Combined with the Back2Circle® system, it allows for precise carbon footprint accounting of recycled materials and supports enterprise ESG strategy execution, accelerating the circular economy.

As the EU ramps up circular economy legislation and China approaches its 14th Five-Year Plan goal of a ¥5 trillion circular economy, those who define the standards will define the industry. Under Ma Yiming’s leadership, Topcentral® is transforming technical breakthroughs—like headlight material recovery—into standardized frameworks, turning lab innovations into a shared industrial language. This standard is not just a technical document; it’s a milestone marking China’s recycled plastics industry’s shift from low-end recycling to high-value circular development.