Old cars, euphemistically known as “end-of-life vehicles” or ELVs are turning into a menace. It’s because of the increased used of new materials, also known as plastics. Whereas the scrap of older cars was welcome fodder for the furnaces of steel and cast iron makers around the world, the plastic piles up on landfills, or is burned. Mazda says it has “become the world’s first automaker to successfully recycle scrapped bumpers from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) into raw material for new vehicle bumpers.”
The new technology was inaugurated on August 21, 2011 and is initially being used to make rear bumpers for the Mazda Biante minivan. Before, if ELV bumpers didn’t land on landfills, they were processed into automobile shredder residue (ASR) and incinerated to recover heat energy, a process equally euphemistically called “thermal recycling.”
Mazda got into the bumper recycling business when it began processing damaged bumpers collected from in-use vehicles through its dealer network in Japan. In the 1990s,Mazda began designing bumpers to be easily recyclable. Now finally, the cost of recycling is less than the cost of purchasing new plastic. Bumpers make the biggest part of the automobile shredder residue.
Bring on the plastic cars!
We’ve almost gotten there… Many cars ha ve bumpers that extend twice as high as in the olden days… disguised by blending them into the fenders… combine that with plastic front fenders, as Nissan uses, and eventually, hopefully, plastic rear fenders (it’s always a pain to get rear quarter-panel damage on a current car… as repair almost always involves welding a new piece in), and everything will be peachy.
Ever hear of a car brand called Saturn?
That was a car? I thought they were selling toilets.
that was one great advantage of the Saturn. Body repairs were very inexpensive. (As I know from experience.) Sort of like Original Beetles
Speak not of the dead, lest they rise to torment us…
Let us all pray for the Big 3 so that they may join Saturn in the hereafter.
Yup… haven’t seen you around the rabid rat farm lately… :D
Weren’t all East German cars made of plastic.
Um…how could Socialist Tetanus Mobiles be made of plastic?
@niky: you from tsikot? I’m eld.
“Bumpers make the biggest part of the automobile shredder residue.”
Bumpers are not just the viewed exterior surface area but include the plastic and foam inserts behind the fascia.
It is quite shocking to me that this isn’t being done by most automakers already.
Back in the day I recycled a bumper from an ‘end of life’ vehicle right onto my ‘near end of life’ Oldsmobuick Skylark. It cost me less than $20.
Entire bumper covers as pictured are commonly found along the road here in the SF bay area. Is there a bounty on ’em?
Mr Schmitt, a clarification please.
Does the Mazda press release specifically say that the polymers will be recycled into new bumpers, or just that the polymer will be recycled?
Injection molding of polyethylene to make bumpers is somewhat tricky and best done with virgin PE with a carefully controlled molecular mass distribution and well controlled additive concentrations. Recycled polymer does not have these characteristics.
Typically, polyolefins are downgraded to things like carpet or upholstery fibers, or park benches, when they are recycled.
If they are making new bumpers our of old bumpers that is significant and not just a greenwashing press release.
New bumpers from old bumpers. See quote above:
“become the world’s first automaker to successfully recycle scrapped bumpers from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) into raw material for new vehicle bumpers.”
Having been gainfully employed as a greenwasher for a major auto manufacturer, I am aware of the differences and the significance.
Yes, it was right there in front of me!
Nevertheless, I remain skeptical.
As long as they sorted the TPO, TPU and RIM fascias, and stick with the painted ones they should be alright with about 5% regrind from the non-painted pellets.