A feasible process has been developed to recover precious inorganic solids (energetic and metallic fuel) from the obsolete polyurethane-based propellants in order to solve their associated long-term disposal problems. In the staged process, two major tasks have been accomplished. One was the successful separation of the three major components, energetics, metallic fuel and polymer by cleaving the polyurethane binders of the three-dimensional network; the other was the complete degradation of the high molecular weight polymers into simple phenolic compounds. The preliminary results indicate that the techniques of matrix modification ultrasonic degradation, and biodegradation are, to various degrees, effective in handling polyurethane-based propellants in an environmentally safe and stable manner. In addition to its unparalleled technical precedence, it is believed that this process will provide an economical solution to a global environmental problem and can be put into actual industrial use.