Dive Brief:

• The Automotive End-of-Life Vehicles Recycling Demonstration Project has been launched by the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) and other recycling associations, as reported by Environmental Leader.
• The pilot will focus on recovering polypropylene and thermoplastic olefin auto parts with the goal of demonstrating the mutual benefit of increased automotive plastic recycling.
• The project will also collect data to inform future design decisions around making plastics easier to recover from vehicles. All of this information will be shared with industry associations in an effort to get a better sense of demand for materials and encourage investment in processing capacity.

Dive Insight:

Up to 15 million vehicles are scrapped in the U.S. every year and while 95% of them are recycled it is still economically challenging to extract plastic in many cases. According to a SPI report from earlier this year, plastics comprise 50% of the average vehicle's volume but only 10% of its weight in an effort to make lighter, more fuel-efficient models.

That trend is expected to continue, with some estimates saying that the average car will have 770 pounds of plastic by 2020 as compared to 440 pounds in 2014. If companies are equipped to handle it, this increased amount of plastic could make material recovery before shredding more viable.

This is another example of recycling opportunities in the automotive field, both in recovery and production. The Composite Recycling Technology Center in Washington state will soon employ hundreds of people working to process composite scrap. Some companies are also expanding their processing capabilities to convert PET and other plastics into polyester fiber for vehicles.