How the Auto Industry Is Embracing Plastic Recycling
Turning post-consumer plastic products into new auto parts keeps plastic out of the waste stream.
Khodrocar - The dual needs to reduce the consumption of new resources in creating plastic products and to reduce the eventual creation of plastic waste when products have been used drive the pursuit of recycled materials in the auto industry.
Plastics are pervasive in modern vehicles, creating the opportunity for significant reuse of plastic. We’ve seen this in the case of the Ford Bronco Sport, which employs recycled plastic from recovered fishing nets in its wiring harness clips. The aim is to expand use of the material into other applications such as engine covers. The ultimate potential is for as much as 700 lbs. of plastic per vehicle to be created from recycled materials, according to Ford technical expert Alper Kiziltas, with about 10 percent of that eligible to be made using the recycled fishing net material.
Reusing Wreckage
Some more visible applications of recycled plastics in new automotive parts are in the cars’ interiors, where consumers will see the materials during every drive. Audi has partnered with LyondellBasell, the world’s largest producer of polymer products, to produce plastic seat belt buckle covers for the Q8 e-tron EV using plastic recovered from parts of crashed Audis.
"As part of the PlasticLoop project, we are working with Audi to establish an innovative closed-loop process, recycling plastic automotive parts for use in new vehicles,” said Erik Licht, LyondellBasell Advanced Polymer Solutions New Business Development Director. "For the first time, we are using chemical recycling to recycle mixed automotive plastic waste into plastic granulate for automotive interior applications,” he said. "The plastic granulate is then used in the production of the seatbelt buckle covers for the Audi Q8 e-tron.”
"We want to use secondary material wherever it is technically possible, ecologically feasible, and of course, environmentally friendly,” said Philip Eder, project manager for circular economy procurement strategy at Audi. "Recycling is not that easy, because as you can imagine, if something is mixed up, it is not that easy to separate it again.”
PET Water Bottles
The polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic used in plastic bottles is a more homogenous source of post-consumer plastic that Audi is also using. The company uses that PET in combination with residual textiles, and fabric selvages recovered from manufacturing plants to create Kaskade, a new fabric material that provides the soft surface and three-dimensional texture of natural fiber materials such as wool.
Kaskade cannot be made from entirely recycled materials, but the company strives to maximize the recycled portion of the material mix, reports Christine Maier of Audi Design. "We used only as much new polyester and as many new resources as was technically necessary,” she said. "The result is a fabric that is reminiscent of wool and natural fibers, and has a very pleasant feel.”
The recovered selvage fabric comes from a plant making automotive products, so the material is already automotive-grade. Audi separates these into black and white components, using them to create an anthracite-colored blend that requires no additional dye. "We leave out another chemical process, which is better for the environment,” noted Maier.
Audi said that the company strives to procure well-sorted PET waste that is of high purity and then they process to avoid any minor impurities in the filament process. This could result in fiber inhomogeneity and potentially make the fabric unattractive. An advantage of using recycled PET is that it is abundant, which is an important consideration for an industry still bedeviled by supply headaches.
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