RECYCLED MATERIALS | MATERIALS


Recycled materials: back from the brink


Developments in recycled materials include a bucket made from discarded fishing nets, new PCR grades of POM and a prototype automotive bumper made from 30% recyclate


The automotive industry – especially in Europe – is ramping up the amount of recyclate it uses in products, in expectation of the pending End-of-Life Vehicles Directive. PureCycle and Motherson have produced a


Class-A surface automotive bumper prototype using 30% PureFive recycled polypropylene (PP). The prototype – made at Motherson’s facility in


Tuscaloosa, Alabama – has undergone perfor- mance tests, including climate testing and mechan- ical properties evaluation. “This collaboration is an important step toward


integrating recycled materials into applications that meet the high requirements of premium OEMs for Class-A surfaces,” said Fabian Wehrle, global innovation exterior engineer at Motherson. “We want to evaluate this through extensive testing to meet the expectations of our customers and to comply with the requirements of the EU End-of-Life Vehicles Directive.” By 2032, pending final adoption, the ELV


Regulation will mandate that new vehicles contain at least 15% recycled plastic content, with a minimum of 3% sourced from end-of-life vehicles. By 2036, those thresholds increase to 25% and 5%, respectively. Exterior components such as bumpers are directly within scope. PureCycle’s dissolution recycling process


removes colour, odour and contaminants from post-consumer PP, producing PureFive resin with properties similar to virgin material. PureFive is third-party certified for recycled content, providing


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the traceability and documentation that OEMs and regulators will require for compliance. For automakers and Tier 1 suppliers targeting


the European market, the bumper prototype provides a scalable blueprint for 2032 compliance, says PureCycle. Nicolas Elwing, senior director of commercial in


Europe at PureCycle, said: “The automotive industry has been working to combine recycled materials with Class A quality. In collaboration with Motherson, there are now promising approaches to making this a reality.” Future goals include increasing the recycled content to over 30% and expanding into additional PP applications for exterior and interior applications. PureCycle is expanding production for European customers, with a new dissolution recycling facility under development at Antwerp in Belgium – and is also building a new facility in Rayong, Thailand. Both are expected to be operational before 2030.


PP for automotive Sumika Polymer Compounds Europe has invested €13 million in a new mechanical recycling plant in France. The plant will make a range of recycled polypropylenes (PPs) to meet the require- ments of the automotive sector, in preparation for ELV regulations. With a capacity of more than 10,000 tonnes/year


of recycled PP, it will recover waste from the automotive sector and reintroduce it into new applications. The new site, in Saint-Martin-de-Crau,


September/October 2026 | INJECTION WORLD 19


Main image: Alpla’s Ocenix bucket is made from PP recovered from discarded fishing nets and ropes


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