According to the Consortium of Automotive Recycling (CARE), the money it costs dismantlers to remove, store and send car plastics for recycling outweighs the amount they can charge for the material.
” I'm increasingly thinking that recycling plastics won't happen at the dismantling stage. “
– Peter Stokes, CARE group
Furthermore, as ELVs are sold to shredders by weight, removing plastics reduces the amount dismantlers can charge for their waste vehicles, creating an even bigger loss.
The revelations come following an ongoing “Bumper Plastics Project” in which CARE has been looking at sending polypropylene bumpers for recycling into granulate at plastic recycler PPR Wipag in Dover.
CARE, which is funded by the main UK motor vehicle manufacturers and importers, aims to promote awareness of recycling car plastics. Under the ELV directive, plastics are increasingly being targeted to help the UK meet its targets of recycling, re-using and recovering energy from 85% of scrapped vehicles a year.
Peter Stokes, chairman of the CARE, told letsrecycle.com: “Plastics from ELVs are not traditionally recycled, as it is entirely at the cost of the dismantler. We were trying to make it a viable option to take the bumpers off at the dismantling stage, but it ended up costing a lot more getting the material to PPR Wipag than it was worth to recycle it.”
He added: “Technically it's feasible but you have to get the economics right.”
Post-shredding
Mr Stokes explained that, as bumpers did not compress well, they were particularly expensive to transport around as “you are mainly shipping air.”
CARE has looked into shredding bumpers on site using a specially-fitted truck owned by Axion Polymers, but concluded that the operating costs outweighed the benefits – and transporting bumpers whole or chopped was still the “best” option.
Mr Stokes said: “I'm increasingly thinking that recycling plastics won't happen at the dismantling stage. We are almost of the opinion it's better to recycle plastic after shredding.”
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Mr Stokes, who is also compliance manager for the Volkswagen Group, said that Volkswagen and Technology company Sicon has already developed a patented process to mechanically separate plastics and other components for recycling from shredded ELVs.
He said: “There is an awful lot of post-shredding work going on by the major industrial partners and equipment has been developed already. The value of ELV plastics could increase, which could drive recycling. But then shredders would pay more for the ELVs too.”
- The CARE group has teamed up with the IDIS consortium to give out free copies of the International Dismantler Information System on DVD to authorised treatment facilities. The group has also gained support from the European Social Fund to offer businesses in East Anglia a 50% discount on the cost of CARE's airbag training course, run by Jema Associates. More details are in the latest CARE newsletter.
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