Navigating Volumes and Value Chains Towards Circularity: Automotive Plastics
Circular Plastics NL (CPNL) continues its in-depth analysis of the plastics value chain, now turning its focus to the automotive sector. With plastics playing an increasingly important role in vehicle design—enhancing fuel efficiency, reducing weight, and improving safety—this sector faces unique challenges in plastic recycling and circularity.
The Dutch automotive industry consumes approximately 136 kton of plastics annually. However, due to the long lifespan of vehicles and high levels of reuse (through secondhand car sales both domestically and abroad), only ~43 kton of plastic waste becomes available each year. This makes automotive the smallest value chain in terms of plastic waste generation despite its significant consumption levels.
Recycling Bottlenecks
Of the ~43 kton of plastic waste generated in the sector, around 75% comes from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), while the remaining 25% originates from repair shops. However, only ~9 kton is currently recovered for recycling, largely due to the automotive sector’s strong focus on metal recovery. This results in low sorting efficiency for plastics.
Additionally, the high fragmentation of plastic types used in vehicles—driven by technical and safety requirements—makes efficient recycling more difficult. As a result, the share of post-consumer recyclates used in automotive plastics remains low (~7 kton), further limiting progress toward circularity.
Outlook
New regulations at both the national (NPCN) and European (ELV Regulation) levels are introducing mandatory recycled content targets for plastics. The proposed ELV Regulation, for instance, requires that 25% of plastics used in new vehicles be recycled, with at least 25% of that originating from ELVs (closed-loop recycling).
However, achieving these targets presents a significant challenge. Since the targets apply to the total plastic consumption (~136 kton), while only ~43 kton of plastic waste is available, there is a clear mismatch between recyclate supply and demand. Furthermore, the Dutch extended producer responsibility (EPR) system for automotive does not yet cover all plastic waste streams. While it has ~84% market coverage for ELVs, it does not include plastic waste from repair shops, making full recovery of the ~43 kton even more difficult.
Call to action
To transition toward circularity, the automotive sector must:
- Expand EPR coverage – Ensure the system includes all ELVs and repair shop waste to maximize plastic recovery and secure access to recyclates.
- Improve sorting and recycling efficiency – Develop better plastics separation techniques to increase the share of recyclable materials.
- Optimize plastic selection and vehicle design – Shift toward more recyclable plastics and design vehicles for easier disassembly to improve material recovery.
CPNL will continue to analyze these challenges and opportunities in upcoming deep dives. The full report, Circular Plastics NL: Navigating Volumes and Value Chains Towards Circularity, will soon be published, providing an in-depth breakdown of volumes, waste streams, and strategies for circularity.
🔎 Previous deep dive: Electrical & Electronics (E&E)
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