INNOVATION | AUTOMOTIVE
Right: Volvo built a one-off version of the XC60 T8
plug-in hybrid car to highlight parts where recycled
polymers may be used
equivalents containing recycled materials. The interior has a tunnel console made from renewable fibres and plastics from discarded fishing nets and maritime ropes. The carpet contains fibres made from PET plastic bottles and a recycled cotton mix from clothing offcuts. The seats also use PET fibres from plastic bottles. The sound-absorbing material under the car bonnet is derived from used car seats from old Volvo cars. “We already work with some great, forward- thinking suppliers when it comes to sustainability,” said Martina Buchhauser, Senior Vice President of Global Procurement at Volvo Cars. “However, we do need increased availability of recycled plastics if we are to make our ambition a reality. That is why we call on even more suppliers and new partners to join us in investing in recycled plastics and to help us realise our ambition.” Volvo attracted media attention when it an- nounced its 25% target, but what is the experience of ELV plastics recyclers and recompounders in regard to demand for their products from car companies? This question was addressed by experts during a panel discussion on ELV plastics at the Plastics Recycling World Exhibition in Essen in June.
Tony Evans, UK Business Manager at compound
producer Albis Plastics, said there has generally been a “slow build-up” in the use of recycled polymers by car makers and suppliers in the automotive industry. The willingness to explore the use of recycled plastics varies from one company to another. “Some companies are much better, much more eager to accept it,” he said. Albis produces Altech Eco compounds based on recycled PA6, PA66, PP, PC and ABS, including glass fibre rein- forced grades. In the last 18 months, Albis has expe- rienced a good increase in automotive projects where recyclate is specified, said Evans, which he attributes both to a growing interest from car companies and because Albis has been successful in convincing materials engineers that recycled plastics compounds are of good quality. Jan Diemert, Deputy Director at Fraunhofer
ICT’s Department for Polymer Engineering, said the Germany-based R&D institute has witnessed an increasing trend for car makers and suppliers to use recycled plastics in certain components. Demand is mostly for large parts, in exterior applications including front end modules, underbody shielding and bumpers. “There are [only] a few applications in the interior,” he said. “The typical problem here is the smell and risk of [VOC] emissions [from plastic recyclate].” Automotive materials specifiers are increasingly asking for recycled content, but “it is always the technical specification that comes first” in their priorities, he said. There is a conservative tendency in automotive
Automotive panel discussion at Plastics Recycling World Exhibition in Essen. Left to right: David Eldridge (AMI Magazines), Tony Evans (Albis Plastics), Jan Diemert (Fraunhofer ICT), and Roger Beuting (Van Scherpenzeel)
28 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2018
materials adoption and car makers looking at the possibility of recycled plastics continue to use specification sheets that were developed for virgin polymers. “We still have to prove ourselves versus the virgin market,” said another panellist, Roger Beuting, Managing Director of Van Scherpenzeel in the Netherlands (the company is now part of Veolia Polymers following a takeover deal in 2017). The lightweighting trend in cars may help further adoption of recycled materials, according to Evans.
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
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