BMW Group increases automotive material recycling rate to 51%

The BMW Group, through its Car2Car research project, has demonstrated that the rate of high-quality material recovery from end-of-life vehicles can be significantly increased. By implementing advanced sorting and smelting techniques, the project raised the percentage of materials suitable for new automotive production from 6 percent to 51 percent.

This figure specifically refers to materials that meet the high-quality standards required for direct reintegration into automotive manufacturing, rather than general recycling into lower-value industries. The project focused on key metals: the usable share of steel rose from 1 percent to 81 percent, aluminium from 23 percent to 52 percent, and copper from 48 percent to 68 percent.

A major breakthrough involved a new method to reduce copper contamination in steel scrap, allowing for the production of high-quality flat steel. This material has already been used to manufacture over 100,000 series parts at the BMW Leipzig plant, and a patent application has been filed for the process. While metals show high potential, the project noted that recycling plastics and glass remains a significant technological challenge due to material complexity and high quality requirements.