Sustainable end-of-life vehicle recycling

A car is largely made of steel, aluminium, and polymer – valuable raw materials that can be recycled even after a vehicle has reached the end of its life.

Circular economy as the most important part of a sustainability strategy

With the launch of the “MaterialLoop – Circular End-Of-Life Vehicles” project, Audi AG aims to promote a holistic basis for its circular economy strategy. The vision is to establish: the most sustainable end-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling in the automotive industry and avoid downcycling. A key success factor is close cooperation with the relevant companies along the entire recycling and supply chain.

A total of 16 companies and institutions are participating in the project. Due to the holistic ambition of the MaterialLoop project – to recycle an entire vehicle – the recycling industry plays a central role within the automotive circular economy. This is why Audi AG is working in close collaboration with TSR Recycling, one of Europe’s leading metal recycling companies.

In order to determine the current and expected potentials, challenges, and limitations of a closed loop at Audi AG, the MaterialLoop project has recycled a total of 100 internal ELVs since October 2022, with the resulting recycled raw materials being used as a basis for new components for Audi AG or Volkswagen Group vehicles. The focus is on three main material streams: steel, aluminium (cast and wrought), and polymers.

Scientific project coordination in a pilot project for end-of-life vehicle recycling

Prognos is the scientific project coordinator for Audi within the MaterialLoop project. Our tasks include five priorities:

• Creating questionnaires and data templates to track recycling chains and quantities
• Conducting interviews and consolidating the data and information gathered
• Creating a mass balance and deriving key KPIs
• Evaluating of the recycling chains for individual material flows and deviating recommendations for action
• Writing the project report

Links and downloads

Further information and a video about the project (Audi.com)

Project team: Dr Jan Trenczek, Dr Jochen Hoffmeister, Nico Dietzsch

Last update: 7.3.2023