AUTOMOTIVE | INNOVATION
EU is on the road to ELV Regulation
In December last year, a provisional agreement was reached between the European Parliament and the Euro- pean Council regarding the End of Life Vehicle Regulation (ELVR). Following the positive vote from the European Parliament’s committees, it was published on 25 February, and it will become law if the wider European Parliament Plenary and the European Council vote through the agreement. Recycled plastic content mandates will be phased in over a ten-year period with a minimum 15% recycled
content six years after entry into force of the regulation, and a minimum 25% recycled content required ten years after entry into force of the regulation. Also, at least 20% of these recycled content targets must be sourced from end-of-life vehicles. Only recycled material from post-consumer waste will be allowed to count towards the minimum recycled content target. The ELVR will also introduce design
requirements for new vehicles, to improve disassembly and mono-ma- terial designs, criteria regarding when
chain to make automotive plastics circularity commercially viable.”
Digitalization A research project to improve automotive plastics circularity is under development at the Brunel University of London. The project, named EcoPlast, is developing an integrated digital platform to optimize the circular economy in automotive plastics. The comprehensive approach integrates eco-design tools, Life Cycle Assessment, Circularity Index measurement, Digital Product Passports for traceability and AI-driven process automation. Under this approach, the objective is to optimize material recovery, enhance process efficiency and improve the availability of informa- tion to track recycled content. Additionally, a circular marketplace will be established to promote trading of recycled and upcycled materials In Germany, the new RezyPart research project
uses AI to improve the quality of recycled plastics from ELVs. It encompasses a partnership between the automotive component manufacturer Brose, German Research Centre SKZ, the software development company LabV Intelligence Solu- tions and the materials expert R-Plast. The objec- tive is to use software aided by AI, to precisely predict the effects of contamination in automotive parts.
It may be then possible to decide whether to
reincorporate or not recycled materials into automotive applications. “With RezyPart, we are developing an AI solution based on our data platform to be able to precisely assess the quality of recyclates in the future and make reliable statements about component properties,” said
16 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | May/June 2026
a vehicle is considered an ELV and a ban on the export of ELVs. It will also consider a cross-border extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme. Chemical recycling will be allowed to contribute to ELVR targets using a mass-balance accounting approach. The EU Commission will need to adopt an implementing act to establish verification methods for the recycled content targets, including mass balance, by 24 months after the entry into force of the regulation. �
https://environment.ec.europa.eu
Stefan Thomas, Managing Director at LabV Intel- ligent Solutions.
SKZ also sees the pooling of expertise as an
important step for the industry: “With RezyPart, we are paving the way for meeting legal and custom- er-specific requirements and see it as the start of a comprehensive recycled materials initiative,” said SKZ Project Manager Tobias Göbel. “We are creating the foundation for integrating recycled materials into sophisticated components in a targeted and high-quality manner. In this way, we are promoting a true circular economy in the automotive sector.” 1. GHG emissions measured in CO2 equivalent (CO2-eq) on a cradle-to-gate basis.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.basf.com �
https://ethz.ch �
www.ivv.fraunhofer.de �
www.aimplas.net �
www.fychtech.com �
www.trebo.dk �
www.canon-europe.com �
https://global.honda �
www.toyota-tsusho.com �
www.borougeinternational.com �
www.covestro.com �
www.bmwgroup.com �
https://prezero.com �
https://globalimpactcoalition.com �
www.jlr.com �
www.brunel.ac.uk �
www.brose.com �
www.skz.de �
www.labv.io
www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com
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