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Information on current European and national legislation concerning end-of-life-vehicles and their effects on raw material producers, TIER 1 suppliers, European OEMs and car importers, and the different recycling technologies and their importance for the future for fulfilling recycling quotas and other demands of the EU laws are presented. Twelve years of polyurethane recycling projects in the European car industry and their consequences for the future are discussed. It is shown that it will not be possible to recycle all plastic waste by means of mechanical recycling alone. Therefore a large scale technology to solve the waste problem is proposed. This solution will favorably include other waste streams and thus includes an integrated total waste stream management. This represents an offer of the German plastic industry to take over more responsibility and enhance co-operation with the OEMs.

This new process for recycling of RIM process scrap consists of granulating scrap parts, pre-heating, then compression molding. Painted or unpainted parts, either reinforced or non-reinforced, can be recycled by this process. The degree of recovery of mechanical properties, relative to the original RIM part, depends on the key processing parameters, which include compression time, temperature, pressure and granulate size.