CIRCUS - Circular use of plastic in the automotive industry

A new ELV (End-of-life-vehicles) regulation has been proposed by the EU Commission (June 2023). The purpose with the regulation is a sustainable transition of the automotive industry with increased recycling of ELV including plastics. According to the proposal, 30 % of plastic in ELV cars need to be recycled 2030. It also says that 25 % of externally recycled plastic need to be used in new cars, of which 6 % be circular recycled (car to car). This means big challenges for the automotive industry. The recycled plastics used today in new cars are from industrial scarp mostly which is not counted as externally recycled in the ELV regulation. And the plastic in ELV is usually incinerated with energy recovery. Thus, the material value is lost, and the incineration also cause carbon dioxide emissions contributing to the global warming. This needs to change the coming years.

The CIRCUS project addresses reuse and recycling of automotive plastic parts. The project started in December 2023 and will go on for 2 years. RISE leads the project with 15 partners in the automotive industry, component manufactures, dismantlers/workshops, recyclers, suppliers of recycled plastic and trade associations.

In the project, plastic car parts are evaluated for dismantling, re-use and material recycling respectively. The plastics quality is analyzed. Design for circular material use is part of the project as well as cost-income calculations for circular business models and environmental system analyses.

A close collaboration between key players in the value chain of vehicles are essential to be able to comply with the new ELV regulation proposed and the CIRCUS project will contribute.