Audi, this is how the recycling of plastic from old cars works

Audi’s sustainability journey it also goes through the use of recycled and recyclable materials inside its new cars. On this issue, the house with the 4 rings has told an interesting novelty concerning its Q8 e-tron electric SUV. Indeed, the automaker has decided to uses recycled plastic for seat belt buckles of its new model. Audi highlights that the plastic of the new buckles, obtained by chemically recycling automotive waste, is the result of an innovative industrial process developed with the specialist LyondellBasell. This is a new step forward to use an increasing amount of recycled plastic in its cars.

How does this chemical recycling process work?

Going more specifically, the house of the 4 rings says that this chemical recycling process, the result of a project supported since 2021, provides that the non-repairable automotive plastic components are separated from foreign materials, such as metal clips, before being shredded and processed into pyrolysis oil.

The qualities of this oil, defined bio-rawcorrespond to those of petroleum derivatives and the materials made using pyrolytic oil guarantee the same characteristics as the original components. In addition, anything produced with bio-crude can be further recovered and recycled.

Audi goes on to state that, subsequently, the pyrolysis oil is introduced in the production process of the new plastics according to a defined approach of the “mass balance”. At least 70% of the granulate intended for the production of seat belt buckle covers thus consists of pyrolysis oil. A percentage certified by ecocycle, an independent agency that monitors the replacement of the fossil resource with the secondary product.

But that’s just the beginning. Indeed, Audi is aiming to generate pyrolysis oil in such quantities in the short term to completely exclude the use of petroleum derivatives, going to recover automotive waste that would otherwise be difficult to reuse. Pyrolysis oil can replace crude oil as a raw material in the production of plastic components with costs comparable to what is required for the mere mechanical disposal of waste.