MBA Polymers UK has launched a specialist processing line to recycle car bumpers from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), which will significantly advance its plans to create a fully circular economy for car bumpers in the UK.
The facility will also help car manufacturers meet proposed amendments to the ELV directive in the EU and the UK, which has proposed that at least 25 percent of plastics in a car must be made from post-consumer material.
Based in Wimblington, near Cambridge, the dedicated line will be supplied from MBA Polymers’ growing number of collection sites and access feedstock from the UK’s biggest ELV recycler, EMR. This creates consistent and high-quality recycled resins for the production of high-impact polypropylene and filled polypropylene.
MBA Polymers UK’s pioneering technology and the reliable performance of its recycled plastics has already seen some of the largest automotive manufacturers switch to using the firm’s sustainable materials in their new vehicles.
By expanding the recycling of car bumpers, MBA Polymers UK will significantly reduce the more than 900,000 tonnes of plastic from cars which currently goes to landfill or incineration in the UK and EU each year.
In contrast, the sustainable materials MBA Polymers UK delivers to manufacturers achieves carbon savings of between 75 to 86 percent, making them the first recycled plastics source to carry the Carbon Trust’s Low CO2 label.
Earlier this year, MBA Polymers UK announced it had achieved RecyClass certification for the sorting, washing, extrusion and pellet production for a range of recycled plastics including ABS, PP, FPP, HIPS and HDPE. RecyClass is a not-for-profit, cross-industry initiative that uses rigorous scientific analysis to ensure the traceability of waste in plastic recycling processes based on the principles of the EN 15343 standards.
