Innovation: Recycling of PCR ELV plastics
With the new EU ELV Regulation, mandatory recycling quotas for plastics in new vehicles come into force. For automotive manufacturers, this creates considerable pressure to act – not only in meeting regulatory requirements, but also in terms of the CO₂ balance across the entire life cycle.
Painted exterior components are particularly challenging. The paint impairs both the recyclability and the material and surface quality of the recovered plastics. High-grade recyclate has therefore been practically ruled out for use in visible areas.
The status quo shows that simple processes deliver only low-grade recyclates, which are unsuitable for high-grade applications such as automotive manufacturing. More complex processes can remove layers of paint, but they are energy- and chemical-intensive and therefore neither ecologically nor economically viable.
What is needed are technologies that take recycling to a new level: efficient, quality-assured and CO₂-optimised. Only then can the requirements of the regulation be understood not as a burden but as an opportunity – for industry, for climate protection and for a real circular economy.
Change is inevitable. The opportunity lies in rethinking.
