U.S. End-of-Life Vehicle Recycling CRADA Team

 CRADA Overview

To achieve greater fuel-efficiency and safety, today’s cars incorporate an increasing share of innovative lightweighting materials. While these materials greatly enhance efficiency during vehicle use, they can present special challenges to recycling.

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Today, more than 95 percent of all vehicles in the United States go through a market-driven recycling infrastructure, with no added cost or tax to consumers. More than 75 percent, by weight, of each end of life vehicle (ELV) is recycled, and the U.S. ELV CRADA Team is working to raise that percentage to as close to 100 percent as conceivably possible.

The CRADA partners are USCAR’s Vehicle Recycling Partnership, which represents DaimlerChrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation; Argonne National Laboratory; and the American Plastics Council .

Thus far, the CRADA team impact has been broad and diverse and includes:

• Establishing and publishing preferred practices for recycling.
• Establishing efficient fluid removal processes.
• Running a licensed Vehicle Recycling Development Center to establish procedures
• that optimize materials recovery in vehicle dismantling.
• Researching separation technologies for commingled material streams.
• Initiating efforts targeted at removing substances of concern from shredder residue, regardless of its source.

A plastics sorting Pilot Plant in operation at Argonne is one of the more visible demonstration’s of the CRADA team’s research in action ( Argonne Pilot-plant Factsheet.pdf ) The team also is working to anticipate and meet the recycling needs for components and parts in future and emerging vehicles such as hybrids and fuel cell vehicles.

The research of the US ELV CRADA Team is funded by the Vehicle Recycling Partnership, the American Plastics Council and U.S. DOE Office of FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies. ( FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies )

The Vehicle Recycling Partnership is part of the United States Council for Automotive Research, under which DaimlerChrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company and General Motors cooperatively address shared technological and environmental concerns.
Argonne National Laboratory, operated by The University of Chicago, is one of U.S. Department of Energy’s largest research centers; it boasts 1,400 scientists and engineers, over 200 areas of research and an operating budget of more than $475 million.
The American Plastics Council, a leading trade association of resin producers, advocates unlimited opportunities for plastics and promotes their economic, environmental and societal benefits.

The CRADA Team actively seeks opportunities to work in collaboration with other major stakeholders…

Sustainable ELV recycling is a global issue…