The Global Impact Coalition (GIC), in collaboration with eight leading companies from the chemical and recycling sectors — BASF, Covestro, LG Chem, LyondellBasell, Mitsubishi Chemical Group, SABIC, SUEZ, and Syensqo — has launched a pilot project to recycle plastics from ELVs. The pilot is taking place at Klaas Boer, a Dutch car dismantling company, where the first steps of this innovative project are underway.
Starting at the end of April, plastics will be removed from 100 ELVs as part of a process to transform them into high-quality raw materials. This initiative marks a significant step toward establishing a circular plastics chain in the automotive sector, which relies heavily on technical plastics.
Collaboration across the entire chain
Currently, less than 20% of the plastic from end-of-life vehicles is recycled. The goal of this pilot is to increase that figure on a structural level by fostering collaboration across the entire value chain: from dismantlers, sorters, and shredders to the chemical industry. By creating a closed-loop system, plastics can be reintroduced into new vehicles.
Dutch contribution to a global solution
The Netherlands was selected as the pilot location in part thanks to the efforts of Auto Recycling Nederland (ARN). “ARN played a key role in setting up the pilot by connecting the Global Impact Coalition with the dismantling company,” says Thorsten Friedrich, innovation coordinator at ARN.
Amanda Martin, Communications Manager at GIC, also highlights ARN’s contribution: “As a national organization, ARN has a wide network of affiliated dismantling companies. In addition, the Dutch vehicle fleet provides a representative mix of brands and models, which is ideal for testing dismantling and sorting strategies.”
Manual disassembly and sorting
At Klaas Boer, plastic components are manually removed using a crane and precision tools. Once extracted, the materials are sorted into ten categories based on type and polymer composition.
The pilot is designed to assess whether this manual approach can be scaled up and made economically viable. If successful, it will lay the groundwork for a replicable business model that could be rolled out across Europe and beyond.
New technology for existing materials
The extracted plastics include materials such as polypropylene (PP), polyamide (nylon), and polyurethane (PUR), all of which have significant reuse potential, provided they are properly sorted.
Using advanced technologies, the sorted plastics are prepared for reuse in new vehicles. The pilot project contributes to knowledge sharing between dismantling companies, shredding companies and sorters, which is essential for a future-proof plastics recycling process.
Preparing for new commitments
The project is in line with upcoming EU regulations requiring that a significant portion of plastics in new vehicles come from recycled materials, including plastics from end-of-life vehicles. The project offers a valuable test bed for putting these future regulations into practice.
“This collaboration marks a turning point for the industry,” said Charlie Tan, CEO of the Global Impact Coalition. “By bringing together parties from across the value chain, we’re making a critical move toward a circular economy for plastics.”
About the Global Impact Coalition
The Global Impact Coalition is a CEO-led organization born out of the World Economic Forum. The coalition focuses on accelerating the transition to a circular, climate-neutral economy. GIC is working on concrete solutions to sustainability challenges that no single company can solve alone. It does so by developing new technologies, creating scalable business models and promoting sector-wide collaboration. Learn more: GlobalImpactCoalition.com or via LinkedIn: @GlobalImpactCoalition.
