Audi is working on a new way to recycle auto plastics

Car manufacturing involves the use of a lot of plastics - in fact, almost 30 per cent of a new car build is comprised of plastic.

They must be resolutely strong, withstand high heat, and meet exacting safety and quality standards.

Petroleum-based plastics are best used in these instances but unfortunately are not recyclable in most cases.

However, Audi has partnered with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany to launch a pilot project to find new ways of recycling automotive plastics.

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Whereas plastics of the same type can often be mechanically recycled (chopped up and re-melted, basically), mixed plastics pose a much greater challenge.

That’s why Audi and KIT are teaming up to investigate the viability of chemically recycling these mixed plastics into a resource-conserving cycle.

The Chemical Recycling of Plastics in Automotive Engineering study will investigate ways to chemically recycle mixed plastics as a complement to traditional mechanical recycling.

From this, Audi hopes to implement new processes and methods of using recycled automotive plastics in its automotive production.

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Audi will supply the study with plastic components that are no longer needed, such as grilles, fuel tanks and trim pieces from its German dealership network.

This waste is able to be recycled into pyrolysis oil, which is almost of the same quality of brand new petroleum-based plastics.

The goal is to be able to create secondary plastic components from the pyrolysis oil and install them into new cars, giving the old plastic waste a new lease on life.

So far, chemical recycling is the only way to convert mixed plastic waste into products equalling the quality of new ones.

Creating these secondary plastics through chemical recycling saves energy, costs and – most importantly – is beneficial to the environment.

Audi is one of the first automobile manufacturers to test this recycling method in a pilot project with plastics from automobile production.

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The new Audi A3 uses a recycled polymer in its upholstery textiles

For Audi, chemical recycling could develop into a major component of wider plastics recycling, and imagines its uses as especially applicable to the automotive industry.

The company plans to gradually increase the proportion of secondary plastics throughout its model range in the near future.