Coalition project launched to accelerate automotive plastics recycling

End-of-life vehicle (ELV) plastics are difficult to sort and recycle considering the wide variety of polymers in the automotive exterior and interior. According to Global Impact Coalition (GIC), the collaborative platform of the chemical industry leaders, about 1 million tonnes of ELV plastic is recovered in Europe today, but less than 20% is reused or recycled.

At the same time, automakers are facing stronger regulations with higher targets for recycled plastics. In Europe, the European Commission has proposed that at least 25% of a new vehicle’s plastics must be sourced from post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials, with 6.25% from closed-loop systems by 2030.

In that context, the demand for recycled ELV plastics is expected to grow, and chemical companies are looking for more recycled plastics to use as feedstock in place of virgin fossil sources.

With the mission of achieving net-zero emissions and advancing circularity in the chemical industry, GIC has launched the pilot project APC-24: Automotive Plastics Circularity, which aims to collaborate with the value chain to improve the automotive disassembly, collection, shredding, sorting and recycling.

Global Impact Coalition is working with dismantlers, shredders, sorters, and OEMs on a pilot project for accelerating automotive plastics circularity.

Three key pain points and corresponding solutions are identified by GIC:

Pain point 1: Current shredding treatment for ELV creates plastic fractions that cannot be used

Unlock lever: Create sufficient demand to pull out parts for dedicated recycling

Pain point 2: Dismantlers lack knowledge to recover the right plastic fractions

Unlock lever: Knowledge sharing through collaboration with OEMs and dismantlers

Pain point 3: Removal of single polymers is not economically sustainable.

Unlock lever: Creation of economies of scale by waste stream pooling and sufficient waste stream demand

GIC is looking for more partners to join the pilot project, more details: Global Impact Coalition website 

Watch: Understand how to unlock 3 barriers of recycling automotive plastics