Contact person
Annika Boss
Forskare
Contact Annika
CIRCUS II - Circular use of plastic in the automotive industry II
CIRCUS II aims to accelerate the transition to circular automotive plastics by developing and demonstrating scalable solutions from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). The project integrates circular design, advanced dismantling, sorting, material upgrading and system-level analyses to enable high-quality recycled plastics for large-scale market adoption.
The automotive sector is one of the largest users of plastic. Within Europe, the automotive industry consumes about six million tonnes of plastics annually, corresponding to around 10% of the total plastic use in Europe. Plastics account for about 10–18% of the weight of modern cars (180-220 kg) and up to half of their component volume. Plastics are used in a wide range of applications from interior parts to structural and functional components. Consequently, substantial volumes of the automotive plastics reaches end of life each year. Despite high recycling rates for end‑of‑life vehicles (ELVs), recycling is still dominated by metals. Plastics are largely incorporated into the shredder light fraction after the car fragmentation and are commonly directed to energy recovery rather than material recycling.
The new End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) Regulation approved by the European Parliament in June 2026 mandates increasing use of recycled plastics in new cars, reaching 25% within ten years, with at least 20% originating from end-of-life vehicles. In addition, the recycling target for the plastics in ELV cars is 30%. This creates a strong need for circular solutions across the automotive value chain. The ELV regulation includes also trucks, buses and motorcycles. The CIRCUS project contributes to Sweden’s efforts to meet the requirements in the ELV Regulation.
CIRCUS II is funded by Vinnova within the FFI program Circularity and runs from June 2026 to June 2029. The project brings together 11 partners across the automotive value chain and RISE, as FoU partner and coordinator of the project.
The project covers dismantling, cleaning and sorting of plastic components, washing and pretreatment, material upgrading, pilot production of new automotive components containing recycled ELV plastics, validation, development of circular design principles for components, and system-level analyses of business models, logistics, costs and environmental impacts. The overall objective is to enable large-scale use of recycled ELV plastics in new vehicles and support compliance with the forthcoming EU ELV Regulation.
Summary
Project name
CIRCUS II
Status
Active
RISE role in project
Coordinator and research partner
Project start
Duration
Until May 2029
Total budget
10 101 000 SEK
Partner
Volvo Personvagnar AB, Artifex Systems AB, KB Components AB, Polykemi AB , BilRetur ABS AB, SBR Sveriges Bilåtervinnares Riksförbund Service AB, Stena Recycling International AB, Mobility Sweden Association AB, Jönköpings Bildemontering AB, Eklunds Bildelslager i Skövde AB , Galloo Plastics SAS
Funders
Coordinators
Rise Research Institutes of Sweden AB
Project members
Annika Boss Birgit Brunklaus Derek Diener Josefina Sallén Ezgi Ceren Boz Noyan Hampus Johansson Thomas Nyström Zinnia Kovanen
Supports the UN sustainability goals
9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure
12. Responsible consumption and production
13. Climate action
