Circularity goes beyond car parts recycling
Automotives are resource-intensive. Currently, over 60 different raw materials are used to manufacture car components.
If the circular economy model is adopted in manufacturing processes, several components, such as tires, don’t have to be discarded after a single cycle.
The automotive sector must go beyond simple tire recycling to reduce its dependence on virgin materials and fossil fuels. In a circular economy, industries can keep several materials in circulation and enjoy the benefits of lower production costs, assured local resource supply, and increased operational sustainability.
In this article, you will learn:
- The various car components and materials that can be recycled,
- How automotive recycling contributes to a European circular economy, and
- The advantages and disadvantages of recycling car components.
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The importance of car recycling in the circular economy
A vehicle’s environmental impacts start before it’s ever used due to the extraction, transport, and processing of raw materials during production.
Vehicles also produce vast amounts of waste during and after use, a significant part of which is toxic. However, many materials in end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) still have value. According to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, nearly 86 per cent of the materials in ELVs are recyclable.
According to the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), the automotive sector is responsible for 19 per cent of steel and 10 per cent of plastics demand in the European Union (EU). However, the unreliability of global supply chains for steel, critical raw materials, and fossil fuels poses serious challenges for the automotive sector. These problems can be resolved by adopting a circular economy. Considering the entire life cycle of materials, circularity is the most economical and environmentally conscious method of material use.
Recycling is crucial to keeping materials in circulation and supporting the circular economy. Currently, car materials from ELVs are reused and recycled but also incinerated for energy. Incineration destroys resources and should be avoided when possible. Instead, materials that would otherwise be incinerated should be diverted for recycling.
Local and regional recycling centers in the EU can become sources of valuable, high-quality secondary raw materials and reduce outside dependence on resources. Recycling also conserves reserves of natural resources and reduces the portion of ELVs that are landfilled or burnt.
Car parts with recycling potential
Vehicles have several components and materials that can remain in circulation beyond tires. Metals, plastics, glass, electronic appliances, oil, batteries, etc., are all recyclable.
However, dismantling ELVs requires the collection and sorting of various car parts. This poses several technological and economic challenges which the automotive sector must tackle. According to the EPRS, 6.5 million vehicles in the EU reach the end of their life annually. Instead of becoming a waste problem, adopting circularity can help meet the EU sector’s demand for raw materials.
Plastic car parts
Plastics are the second most common material used in vehicles, after metals. According to the EPRS, plastics make up 50 per cent of car waste by volume and 10 per cent by weight, but only 19 per cent is recycled.
To meet the EU target of recycling 30 per cent of plastics from ELVs, the automotive sector can focus on polymers with mature recycling technology, such as polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).
The items with recyclable plastic types that are easy to dismantle before shredding ELVs are as follows:
- Car exterior: Vehicle components like the bumper, fender, car body, bonnet, and wing mirrorcasingcan be used for new car parts like mud and splash guards. Tire recycling in various ways can close the loop.
- Interior Plastics: Several recyclable interior items, such as dashboards, door panels, car mats and carpets, seat polyurethane foam, and door panels, are useful for furniture and building material production.
- Plastic Fuel Tanks: The fuel tanks made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), are highly recyclable and dismantled easily.
Plastics may not be as valuable as metals, but recycling them still reduces waste and fossil fuel extraction.
Other recyclable car components beyond plastics
To meet EU targets of reusing and recycling 85 per cent of the material in cars, other materials must also be considered.
- Metals: The automotive sector uses a large percentage of EU steel (19 per cent), aluminum (42 per cent), and critical raw materials (50 per cent). Steel and iron make up 65 per cent of a car by weight and the material has a 90 per cent recycling rate. All metals can be indefinitely recycled to produce high-quality non-downgrading secondary material.
- Glass: Windshields and windows are recyclable ifdismantled in time. However, currently, only 10 per cent are removed before shredding vehicles, making recycling challenging.
- Hazardous material: Batteries and catalytic converters are also recyclable. The rising demand for lithium-ion batteries due to increased electric vehicle production can be met by reusing, refurbishing, and repurposing old batteries. It´s also possible to recover valuable metals like lithium from used batteries. Lead-acid batteries are recycled, and most of the hazardous lead is recovered, reducing the environmental risks of improper disposal.
Despite the challenges, several vehicle manufacturers are already committing to recycling materials in their automobiles.
Circular economy in the automotive industry: Real-life examples
Some excellent examples of recycling in the automotive industry in the EU are as follows:
- Car manufacturers Skoda, Stellantis, and Volkswagen have joined the EU project “ZEvRA (Zero Emission electric vehicles enabled by haRmonised circulArity),” aiming to achieve 100 per cent recycling of steel and aluminum.
- Mercedes-Benz has opened a battery recycling plant in Germany to recover over 95 per cent of lithium, cobalt, and nickel in automotive batteries for reuse in ELVs produced by the brand.
- Contec uses a proprietary pyrolysis process to turn end-of-life tires into new commodities. Learn more about our process.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of recycling car parts?
The global automotive industry accounts for 5 per cent of industrial waste, so recycling car parts can have environmental and economic benefits for everyone.
However, recycling car parts also has challenges impacting its effectiveness that must be resolved.
Advantages of recycling car parts:
Recycling ELVs supports circularity by using fewer virgin materials and energy. The benefits are discussed below:
- Environmental benefits: The main ecological benefits include less pollution and increased resource conservation.
- Recycling car parts reduces waste and pollution. It also reduces landfill space, for example, by shredding tires.
- Keeping materials in circulation conserves natural resources by limiting the extraction and processing of new materials. For example, using one ton of recycled plastic instead of new plastic saves oil (16.3 barrels), energy (5,774 kWh), and landfill space (22.9 m3).
- Alternate feedstocks can be produced from chemical recycling to make new plastic.
- Energy savings: Recycling car parts cuts energy use and can reduce 90 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change.
- Producing secondary materials is not as energy-intensive as new material production. Recycling polypropylene plastic generates 42 per cent fewer carbon emissions than producing new plastic.
- Recycling metals saves 20 times or between 60-95 per cent of energy compared to extraction from ores.
- Economic opportunities: Recycling involves various functions such as collection, dismantling, sorting, shredding, and processing.
- The automotive recycling industry is expected to grow at an anticipated CAGR of 7.2 percent between 2024 and 2031. In the EU, net revenues of €1.8 billion, after considering costs, are expected.
- Recycling is labor-intensive and can create job opportunities. In the EU, it could add over 22000 jobs, most in small and medium enterprises.
- The market for remanufactured products is increasing and can soon become economic for consumers.
- ELV recycling can diminish the EU’s dependence on imported resources, as most of the raw materials needed for making cars are unavailable in the region.
Disadvantages of recycling car parts:
Some challenges in recycling car parts are complexity, economic viability, and insufficient recycling processes.
Complexity of recycling processes: The number of materials and composite nature of car parts complicates recycling. Currently, only 19 per cent of the plastic components recovered from ELV are recycled. Of the nearly 200 polymers used in cars, around 39 are commonly used either individually or in combination with other polymers and materials.
Several plastic polymers lack recycling technology, capacity, or sufficient quantities of waste to make circularity feasible. Another problem is the difficulty of dismantling car parts. Innovative product designs that plan for easy disassembly can help improve recycling.
Many of these challenges can be solved by evaluating the entire creation of car parts and designing them from the beginning with circularity in mind.
Economic viability: Though new mined resources are not needed, recycling costs can sometimes be higher than new production costs. The market and prices for recycled materials also fluctuate, which influences the profitability of recycling. Materials that need special handling equipment and conditions can be expensive for small recyclers. As EU regulations favor increased recycling, secondary materials will likely become more abundant and cost-effective.
Insufficient Infrastructure: ELV recycling also suffers due to supply chain management problems. Several regions lack the infrastructure and efficient networks for collection and recycling. Required recycling centers may not be available nearby, which can reduce recycling efficiency or increase costs due to transport. Recycling technology for specific parts may also not be economical. The sector requires more R&D efforts within the industry and in collaboration with research institutes to fix this problem.
Circularity and recycling car parts
A significant portion of car part material is recycled, reducing waste and environmental impacts and saving natural resources. However, recycling efficiency can be higher for recyclable materials if the challenges in the availability of suitable and economical recycling technology are addressed.
Contec, with its innovative and protected pyrolysis process, provides much-needed and scarce green and safe solutions and capacity for recycling tires. Contec can recycle 100 per cent of the materials in end-of-life tires to reduce waste and produce feedstocks like recovered Carbon Black (ConBlack®), recovered Tire Pyrolysis Oil (ConPyro®), and recovered Steel (ConWire®) as sustainable alternatives to current industrial production.
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