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The breakthrough supports a more sustainable, circular automotive supply chain, the companies said.
Chemical and materials company Dow and scrap recycling company Gruppo Fiori have developed an innovative method to recycle automotive polyurethane foam that defies previous standards, according to a Sept. 3 press release.
A typical car contains roughly 62 pounds of polyurethane foam, and about 22 to 33 pounds of that foam — around a third to half — are in car seats. Until now, recyclers would need to dismantle the entire vehicle to recover polyurethane foam. But Dow and Gruppo Fiori’s breakthrough process extracts the clean foam ready for chemical recycling without the costly and labor-intensive step of disassembly. Workers can then turn the recycled foam into new materials.
The companies said the advancement supports a “circular automotive supply chain,” in which materials are continuously used and waste is minimized.
“Collaboration is essential to building a closed-loop supply chain for the automotive industry,” Esther Quintanilla, global MobilityScience marketing director at Dow Polyurethanes, said in the release.
Dow and Gruppo Fiori formalized their partnership just last year to build more sustainable solutions for recycling vehicle parts and materials. The companies said their progress on this technical breakthrough adds momentum toward future industrial use.
The new process is intended in part to assist manufacturers with meeting proposed European Union rules on limiting waste associated with end-of-life vehicles, which would require a higher content of recycled material in cars.
In addition to supporting compliance with European regulatory requirements, more sustainable recycling pathways will help automotive manufacturers meet their own sustainability goals “without sacrificing the performance benefits of polyurethanes,” Quintanilla said.
“[W]e can restore the value of waste and share that value with the industry,” said Mauro Grotto, president of Italmetalli, a Gruppo Fiori company, in the release.
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