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Saturn currently injection molds and paints PPE+PA66 exterior body panels in its Spring Hill, TN facility. These manufacturing operations result in a continuous stream of waste material that needs to be responsibly and economically managed. This paper will summarize the process that General Motors and Saturn used to evaluate and validate the use of post-industrial painted PPE+PA66 reprocessed material in Saturn and General Motors' wheel trim applications (wheel covers). Not only did this project increase the amount of recycled content in General Motors' vehicles, but it also provided Saturn Corporation with a favored outlet for an internal waste stream.

With the need to decrease solid waste generation in the United States, efforts continue to find economical ways to increase post-consumer and post-industrial plastics recycling. Today, post-industrial painted plastic parts are normally downgraded to lower-end applications or potentially sent to landfills for disposal. The automotive and plastics industries need to find more economical recycling solutions to better utilize this material. This paper will provide an overview of some of the key recycling issues facing the automotive and plastics industry and why TPO bumpers offer a significant opportunity for enhanced post-industrial and post-consumer plastics recycling in the future. In addition, Montell Polyolefins and Saturn Corporation partnered to conduct a technical study to investigate and evaluate 5 different processes for recycling post-industrial painted TPO bumper fascias.