Plastic packaging becomes automotive components - circular economy for expanded polypropylene (EPP)
Our partnership with JSP
European car manufacturers are increasingly using recycled polymers due to new EU directives. Previously, component manufacturers were reluctant to use them in safety-relevant areas due to unreliable mechanical properties. The automotive industry has been striving to recycle plastic waste for years, and the current circular economy debate is accelerating these efforts.
A good example is a recycling system from JSP International/France and General Industries Deutschland GmbH (GID). GID collects EPP load carriers from car manufacturers, recycles them and delivers the material to JSP. The resulting PP regranulate with 25 percent recycled content is used for the production of EPP Arpro 5134 RE, which saves resources and reduces CO2(e) emissions by up to 12 percent compared to virgin material, without compromising on mechanical properties.
The use of plastics in automotive engineering is increasing in order to reduce CO2 emissions and increase the range of electric vehicles. Vehicles are already made of 50 percent plastic, and the proportion of polymer is expected to rise to around 25 percent by 2027. Polypropylene (PP) is the most commonly used plastic. The use of expanded polypropylene (EPP) is also growing in importance, particularly for applications such as impact absorbers in the area of pedestrian safety and occupant protection due to its closed-cell foam structure, which provides effective cushioning.
Federal Minister for the Environment
Steffi Lemke
Nuclear safety and consumer protection
„In Germany, it’s about reducing plastic waste on the one hand and recycling the rest to a high quality on the other. Only then will a cycle be created!“
This is where GID comes into play as a plastics recycler, as the company specializes in the automotive industry:
Production sites and partnerships: GID has its own production sites, operates in-house operations in assembly plants of OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), owns mobile processing plants and works with partner companies.
Processing of plastic waste: GID processes around 12,000 tons of plastic waste from the automotive sector into high-quality recyclates every year, including regrind, regranulates and compounds.
Reusable packaging: Around 4,500 tons per year come from reusable packaging in the automotive sector, which is used between OEM plants and suppliers.
Reusable containers for vehicle components: Special reusable containers made of EPP (expanded polypropylene) are used between OEM plants and suppliers. These are scrapped after a certain period of use.
Intelligent take-back system: GID has established an intelligent take-back system with various OEMs, including Audi, Daimler, Opel, PSA, Renault, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen. This includes planning the return of the load carriers before the vehicle leaves the plant in order to reduce transportation costs and CO2 emissions.
EPP compactors: Due to the low weight of the load carriers and limited space, GID uses EPP compactors on site to increase the load weight per truck.
Quality control: GID carries out strict quality control, both when sorting the load carriers and when granulating the material. Quality assurance includes tests such as melt flow index, notch impact, tensile test and filler content.
Processing and cooperation: The EPP load carriers, which are sorted and compacted according to quality, are further processed at the GID site in Eschwege. In this way, GID and JSP work together to achieve equivalent mechanical properties, emissions and the same burning behavior as the virgin material so that components made from Arpro 5134 RE can also be used for bumpers and pedestrian protection.
GID launches new rEPP ARcycle on the market
June 18, 2024
First rEPP in premium quality
ARcycle, which was specially developed for the production of EPP with post-consumer recycled content (EPP-RE), was launched in mid-June 2024.
The materials supplied by General Industries Deutschalnd have been approved by our partner JSP for use in the patent-pending EPP-RE manufacturing process.
Read more about it in our press release.
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