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The Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) glass recycling project team evaluated the current state of automotive glass recycling. The area that had the most opportunity for improvement was the materials recycling of vehicle assembly plant scrap and post consumer automotive glass. The main barriers to be overcome were the logistics and the cost of collection. Automotive glass repair shops were chosen for study. A process was developed for collection and delivery of the glass to a recycler. The process was piloted and the result was a standard process and contract that could be used by other glass repair shops for recycling their glass.

In June 1997, the Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) and the American Plastics Council (APC) asked MBA Polymers to conduct a study to determine the technical and economic feasibility of recovering metals and plastics from end-of-life radiator end caps (RECs). The VRP worked with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) to obtain samples of RECs from two metal recycling companies, SimsMetal America and Aaron Metals. MBA performed its standard Recyclability Assessment on the materials, which included a detailed density and material characterization study and an actual processing study using its pilot processing line. It was found that the polyamide from RECs could be recovered in reasonably high yield and purity using tight density separations. The recycling of the REC samples used for this study generated about 40% nonferrous metal, 19% mixed ferrous and nonferrous metal and about 20% polyamide flakes.