End-of-Life Vehicle Plastics: Advancing Circular Economy in Automotive

With 6-7 million vehicles reaching end-of-life annually in China, establishing efficient recycling processes for automotive plastics and their reintegration into new cars has become crucial. This aligns with the automotive industry's ambitious sustainability targets, as automotive manufacturing increasingly focuses on recycled content and reduced environmental impact. Under the initiative of the German federal enterprise GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), we partnered with leading OEMs NIO and Volkswagen, recyclers GEM and Ausell, and certification body TÜV Rheinland. Our task was to prove that ELV plastics recycling is both technically feasible and economically viable, while building robust supply chains that meet stringent quality standards for PCR plastics in cars.

The challenges in automotive plastic recycling are both technical and systemic. ELV plastics require sophisticated sorting and processing methods. While China's recycling infrastructure handles raw materials like metals effectively, plastic waste from vehicles needs more attention. Ensuring consistent quality for PCR plastics in cars while meeting strict manufacturing processes posed significant challenges. The lack of standardized collection, sorting, and production processes, combined with complex logistics, created hurdles for scaling up car-to-car plastic recycling.

We developed comprehensive circular economy automotive solutions through strategic partnerships. Working with recyclers for systematic ELV plastics recycling in China, we established reliable material flows. Collaboration with automotive manufacturers helped define requirements for recycled content in automotive applications, while third-party certification validated our approach. This ecosystem has enabled us to create recycled engineering plastics with 50% PCR content that meet the high-performance standards required for demanding automotive applications. These materials offer excellent surface quality for superior aesthetics while adhering to strict Vehicle Interior Air Quality (VIAQ) requirements. This successful implementation demonstrates how innovative materials combined with strategic partnerships can accelerate automotive circularity at scale.