CIRCUS - Circular use of plastic in the automotive industry

The European Commission presented 2023 the proposal for a new End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) regulation. The proposal places demands on the automotive industry to use  post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR) in new cars and to recycle 30% of the plastic from scrapped cars. According to the last revision of the ELV regulation in June 2025; 20% of the plastic in new vehicles must be recycled and 15% of this must be circular recycled, ifrom ELV through a closed-loop recycling system. The ELV regulation will be gradually implemented 2026 - 2031. An important update in the last revision is that the ELV-regulation now apply to all vehicle categories: Passenger cars, trucks, buses and motor cycles.

The CIRCUS project addresses reuse and recycling of automotive plastic parts. The project started in December 2023 and will end in february 2026. RISE leads the project with 15 partners in the automotive industry, component manufactures, dismantlers, recyclers, suppliers of recycled plastic and trade associations.

In the project, plastic car parts are evaluated for dismantling, re-use and material recycling. The quality and properties of plastics from ELV cars are analyzed and evaluated to see if the plastics can be used in new car components. Design for circular material use is part of the project as well as cost-income calculations for circular business models and environmental system analyses.

A close collaboration between key players in the value chain of vehicles are essential to be able to comply with the new ELV regulation.