Recycling Complexity: The Evolving Challenge of Automotive Materials

The recycling of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) is a cornerstone of Europe’s circular economy ambitions. While metals such as steel and aluminium are long-established in recycling systems, complex materials like polymers, composites, and multi-material assemblies have made the recovery of vehicle components significantly more challenging. To secure valuable resources and reduce environmental impacts, automotive recycling must evolve to address these materials with precision, efficiency, innovative technology and scientific rigour. Taking place on 19-20 November 2025, the Advanced Recycling Conference 2025, hosted by nova-Institute, will spotlight innovative technologies and solutions int this sector by providing a vital forum for collaboration between science and industry.

Policy Landscape and the Urgency for Action in the Automotive Sector

The European Union’s Directive 2000/53/EC on End-of-Life Vehicles laid the foundation for vehicle recycling more than two decades ago. However, with the European Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan pushing for improved material circularity, a new regulatory framework is emerging. The proposed End of Life Vehicles Regulation (COM (2023) 451) will extend obligations across the full vehicle lifecycle, including a requirement for a minimum of 25 % recycled plastic content  from EOL vehicles in new vehicles and mandatory design provisions for the removability of large mono-plastic parts (European Commission, 2025).

In March 2025, the Council of the European Union endorsed these measures, underlining that future vehicles must be designed for dismantling, reuse, and high-value recycling (Council of the EU, 2025). Industry associations have responded: EuRIC (2024) supports life-cycle-based implementation, while the European Composites Industry Association (EuCIA, 2023) stresses the need for proportionate targets that reflect composite material realities.

Complexity in Automotive Materials

This evolving policy context is reshaping the automotive recycling sector. What was once a linear end-of-pipe activity is now a design and materials-management challenge across the entire vehicle value chain.

Plastics and Polymers

Plastics account for nearly 20% of a modern car’s mass, mainly including PP, PE, PA, ABS and blends. Mechanical recycling remains limited by paints and additives, but solvent-based and other chemical recycling routes show promise for the recovery of high-quality products (Zambrano et al., 2024; Ravina et al., 2023).

Fibre-Reinforced Composites

Glass- and carbon-fibre reinforced polymers provide lightweight strength but resist conventional recycling. Pyrolysis and solvolysis can recover fibres, yet, cost and quality losses remain barriers (Khan et al., 2021; Mbatha et al., 2024).

Lightweight Alloys

Aluminium use is expanding, yet alloy mixing leads to downcycling. Sorting advances such as spectroscopy-based classification can support a closed-loop recovery (Shankar et al., 2024; Tiwari et al., 2025).

From Dismantling to Digital Traceability

Modern vehicles combine bonded composites, embedded electronics, and mixed joints that complicate disassembly. The proposed ELV regulation introduces design-for-disassembly obligations, requiring non-destructive removal of large polymer parts before shredding Research into “active disassembly” using smart fastening materials could further improve component recovery.

A promising pathway is improved sorting and advanced separation. After shredding, the automotive shredder residue (ASR), a mixture of plastics, foams, glass, textiles, and metals,  remains a key bottleneck. Advanced sorting technologies using near-infrared or hyperspectral sensors can separate valuable polymer fractions for reuse or chemical recycling.

Advanced Recycling Conference 2025: Automotive Recycling in Focus

The Advanced Recycling Conference 2025 features several high-profile presentations directly addressing automotive and complex-material recycling in the dedicated session “Recycling Solutions for End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV)”: 

• Lukas Killinger (Fraunhofer ICT) – ELV Directive Demands: Pioneering Recycling Solutions for Automotive Plastic Waste 
• Abidin Balan (Trinseo) – Advancing Circularity through Dissolution-Based Upcycling for ABS and PC Waste
• Fergal Byrne (Addible) – Oxycycle: Oxidation-based Tyre Recycling

To register for Advanced Recycling Conference 2025 on-site in Cologne, Germany, or online, visit: https://advanced-recycling.eu/registration/

References

• Council of the European Union (2025), Circular economy: Council adopts position on recycling of vehicles at the end of their life, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2025/03/25/circular-economy-recycling-of-vehicles/
• EuCIA (2023) New ELV Directive: Considerations from the Composites Value Chain Perspective, https://eucia.eu
• EuRIC (2024) Recommendations on the ELV Regulation proposal, https://euric-aisbl.eu
• European Commission (2025) Proposal for a Regulation on circularity requirements for vehicles (COM (2023) 451). Available at: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/waste-and-recycling/end-life-vehicles_en
• Khan et al. (2021), Advances of composite materials in automobile applications – A review,’ Journal of Engineering Research Volume 13, Issue 2, June 2025, Pages 1001-1023,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2307187724000440
• Mbatha, A. et al. (2024), The use and recycling of natural and synthetic fibre-reinforced polymeric composites in the automotive industry,  International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology 72(4):269-278 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380076177_The_Use_and_Recycling_of_Natural_and_Synthetic_Fibre-_Reinforced_Polymeric_Composites_in_the_Automotive_Industry_A_Review
• Ravina, M. et al. (2023) Hard-to-recycle plastics in the automotive sector: Economic, environmental and technical analyses of possible actions, Journal of Cleaner Production, 394: 136227, https://iris.polito.it/handle/11583/2976250
• Shankar et al. (2024), Classification of automotive aluminium scrap into cast and wrought alloys via particle size analysis, Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40831-024-00989-x
• Tiwari et al. (2025), Facilitating recycling of 6xxx series aluminium alloys by machine-learning-based optimisation,’ Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy Volume 11, pages 2323–2334, (2025), https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40831-025-01112-4
• Zambrano et al. (2024) Recycling of Plastics in the Automotive Sector and Methods of Removing Paint for Its Revalorization: A Critical Review, Special Issue Sustainable Polymers for a Circular Economy. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/16/21/3023

Source

nova-Institute, original text, 2025-11-05.

Supplier

Addible
European Council
European Industry Association EuCIA
European Union
Fraunhofer-Institut für Chemische Technologie (ICT)
nova-Institut GmbH
Recycling Europe (former: European Recycling Industries Confederation EuRIC)
Trinseo SA

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