AUTOMOTIVE | INNOVATION


Policy and politicians are showing the influence they exert over how the automotive plastics recycling sector develops, writes James Snodgrass


The road ahead for automotive circularity


What a difference a year makes. If 2024 was the year that the circular economy became main- stream, 2025 is the year of “drill, baby, drill”. The seismic political shift in the world’s largest econo- my – thanks to the election of President Trump in the US – will have significant consequences globally. Policies that could bring down the price of crude oil may make mechanically recycled poly- mers less financially viable than virgin polymers. This is particularly worrying for the ELV (end-of-life vehicles) sector, where the extraction of the recycla- ble plastics is relatively complicated and onerous compared with the recycling of single-material packaging. In Europe, recycling organisations have been concerned about the potential impacts on the development of ELV recycling from the EU’s ELV Regulation proposals. In February, responding to the European Parliament’s draft report on ELV


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


regulation, organisations including EuRIC, FEAD, PRE, T&E, ECOS, and EEB, sent out a joint state- ment urging policymakers to uphold the European Commission’s original target of requiring 25% of plastics used in new cars to come from recycling. Such changes risk slowing progress toward a truly circular automotive sector, the joint statement said. The signatories said that maintaining ambitious recycled content benchmarks is essential to drive investment in the technologies and infrastructure necessary to efficiently recycle ELV plastics, improve material recovery rates, and minimise waste sent to energy recovery or landfills. In June, the European Council announced that its position was in favour of a phased introduction of the recycled plastics content target: 15% by six years after the entry into force of the regulation, 20% by eight years after, and 25% by ten years after. Katharina Schlegel, Circularity Director at Plastics


Main image: Waste car parts will become a source of


plastics for new parts under future EU regulation


July/August 2025 | PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD 11


IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40