Sustainability in the automotive industry

The automotive industry is now highly sustainable and represents an interesting model of circular economy.

A proper vehicle management system requires the recovery of the 95 percent of its total weight (more precisely the 85 percent as recycling and reuse and 10 percent as energy recovery), in compliance with the 2000/53/CE Directive issued in 2015.

This is an extremely positive and environmentally friendly system if we consider that every year about 700,000 of vehicles reaching the end of their useful lives each year. Many of these auto parts can be recycled and transformed into a new resource.

What parts get used and how?

Almost all the parts of a car or any other auto can be recovered.

First of all, operators need to drain fluids and dismant valuable parts. Hazardous liquids have to be segregate and accumulatefor safe disposal. Liquids such as gas and oil are filtered and reused.

Batteries and tyres should not be forgotten among the parts to recover. Batteries are made up of heavy metals such as lead, chromium, cadmium, copper, zinc and mercury; once they reach the end of life, they must be recycled because they are very toxic. Used tires are among the largest and most problematic sources of waste today, due to the large volume produced and their durability. We can recycle tyres to create rubber granules (used in production of rubber mat and molded products) and rubber powder (used in the asphalt industry).

Electrical and electronic material as well as light bulbs can also be collected and reused as they are. On the contrary, if they need to be recovered, the glass can be used to create glass wools, insulation or tiles vitrification. Windshields, windows, rear windows can be removed and shipped to specialized glass recovery facilities.

There are a lot of plastic parts in a vehicle: dashboard, doorman, bumper, windshield wipers. However, the recycling process is diversified: some parts can be recovered and extracted before demolition, while others are separated after the car body is crushed.

Metals such as aluminium and steel, can be recycled repeatedly without altering their properties.

Textile materials represent that 5% that cannot be recycled, and therefore are crushed along with the car body.

Why the choice of upcycle car interior upholstery and safety belts ?

We chose to use the fabrics recovered from decommissioned car interior upholstery especially for the extra benefits they can offer us in terms of versatility and robustness.

They are available in different fabrics, patterns and color shades and this allows us to create extraordinary combinations.

Thanks also to their original features, they are robust as well as particularly hardwearing and durable.

For all these reasons we think that they are the ideal materials for our creations.

For more information on our recovery process, visit the following page: “sustainability“.

L'articolo Sustainability in the automotive industry proviene da Exseat.