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This paper presents an analysis of the Vehicle End of Life (VEOL) trends in the United States based on the VEOL model developed by the Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP), a consortium between Chrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company and General Motors. The model, developed interactively with the VRP by the Center for Environmental Quality (CEQ) at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), accounts for the economic and the material transfer interactions of stakeholders involved in the VEOL process; the insurance valuation, salvage pool, dismantling, rebuilding, maintenance and repair, shredding, and landfilling [Bustani, et al., 1998]. The scenarios analyzed using the VEOL model consider regulations from Europe as well as the U.S. market factors and business policies.

Hand dismantling of end of life vehicles (ELV) may have limited use on recovering the majority of materials that will be in our future automobiles. Research is being conducted on automated methods to recover pure plastics from automotive shredder residue (ASR). As part of USCAR initiative, the Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP), a cooperative effort among Chrysler, Ford and General Motors undertook a study to determine the feasibility of obtaining pure plastics from ASR using density and skin flotation separation technologies. The total project concept is described in this paper including important elements such as the detailed dismantling of a baseline vehicle to define total plastics complexity, shredding vehicles, collecting ASR samples and performing R&D work on automated recovery methodologies.

The technologies of recycling Reaction Injection Molded (RIM) polyurethane polymers have been refined to the stage of commercial reality. Chrysler Corporation is in the process of qualifying the use of automotive fascia containing recycled RIM thermoset polymers. This will mark the first use, in North America, of a recycled RIM thermoset polymer into a class A surface exterior automotive part. This was made possible through a close working relationship with Polyrim Green Lane, a division of Decoma International, and Dow Plastics. The described process technology allows the recycle of painted and unpainted process scrap, and potentially post consumer scrap, into the same application without the loss of surface quality or polymer performance. This will divert these materials from the waste stream that is currently being landfilled.