WEF & GIC: Bringing Circularity to Vehicle Supply Chains

Each year, Europe loses over 800,000 tonnes of plastic from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) to landfill or incineration, according to the Global Impact Coalition (GIC). 

Although the automotive industry often makes sustainability pledges, fewer than 20% of these plastics are actually recycled.

The GIC is seeking to change this through its Automotive Plastics Circularity (APC) project, which aims to redesign how plastics from ELVs are handled. 

The plan includes a coordinated approach from eight major companies – BASF, Covestro, LG Chem, LyondellBasell, Mitsubishi Chemical Group, SABIC, SUEZ and Syensqo – and focuses on four key areas to deliver systemic change across the supply chain.

Redesigning value chains through early-stage sorting

Unlike metals, which benefit from well-established recycling systems, ELV plastics are typically mixed, contaminated and difficult to process. 

As a result, they are often treated as waste instead of potential resources. The GIC stresses that the industry must shift its approach by focusing on early-stage sorting of plastics.

The existing method of shredding entire vehicles and attempting to separate materials afterwards reduces the quality and usefulness of recovered plastics. 

A new approach, sorting plastics by polymer type and function during dismantling, promises better outcomes. 

The GIC APC project supports this by grouping plastic components by type and keeping them together along the entire supply chain. This process produces cleaner outputs that can be reintroduced into vehicle manufacturing.

The APC project works with chemical companies, vehicle dismantlers and recyclers to keep these plastic groupings intact, enabling more effective recycling and boosting the chances of circular reuse in the automotive supply chain.

Aligning design with circular supply chains

While voluntary changes from industry actors help, the GIC states that robust regulation is crucial. 

The EU Green Deal’s ELV Regulation introduces rules requiring 25% of the plastics in new vehicles to be from recycled materials by 2030, with part of this needing to come from ELV systems themselves.

This regulation provides clear direction, but the success of the policy depends on collaboration. Government and industry need to work together to standardise dismantling methods across the EU, incentivise sorting plastics at the point of collection and finance research into scalable recycling technologies.

With effective policies in place, environmental goals can evolve into market-ready practices, creating a framework that supports more sustainable automotive production.

“This collaboration represents a turning point for the industry,” says Charlie Tan, CEO of the GIC.

“Recycling ELV plastics has long been a challenge, with less than 20% of these materials recycled today. 

“By uniting players from across the automotive value chain, from auto makers to dismantlers, sorters, recyclers and the chemical industry, we are connecting the links to close the loop on plastics.”

Advancing technologies and building economic models

Conventional recycling methods often struggle to process degraded or contaminated plastics, but emerging technologies are providing new solutions. 

AI is used to improve sorting accuracy, identifying plastic types more precisely and enabling efficient closed-loop recycling.

Chemical recycling also plays a role. This technique breaks plastics back down into molecular components, making it possible to regenerate even low-quality plastics into materials with properties close to virgin plastics. 

Major chemical firms are backing these developments, aiming to scale them across the industry.

Nonetheless, economic challenges remain. Recycled plastics tend to be costlier than their virgin equivalents, putting pressure on dismantlers and recyclers. 

Financing innovations can ease this burden. One approach is extended producer responsibility (EPR), such as the scheme in France under the AGEC law, which shifts recycling responsibility to vehicle manufacturers.

Pilot projects from the GIC suggest centralised recycling and sorting centres can achieve economies of scale. Public-private partnerships also offer the potential to build the infrastructure needed, with shared investment ensuring that financial responsibilities are distributed.

Joining forces for global action

Plastic waste is not confined to cars, and the drive for solutions is expanding across industries and regions. Collaboration remains central. 

Clémence Schmid, Director of the Global Plastic Action Partnership at the World Economic Forum, says: "Reaching this 25-nation milestone is not just a celebration of numbers, it’s a testament to the growing global determination to tackle one of the world’s most pressing challenges.”

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