Plastic recycling: Joint efforts are having an impact

• Significantly increased recovery rates for PMMA in Europe
• Prototype developed from recycled PMMA for vehicle taillights

The Europe-wide recycling alliance for polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), launched last year by Röhm in collaboration with partners from the plastics industry, is attracting strong interest and growing demand across the industry. The alliance aims to boost the recycling of PMMA from end-user products and post-consumer waste, and to establish a closed-loop material cycle. Since its formation, PMMA recovery rates in Europe have already seen a significant increase.

“We’re delighted that our joint initiative has energized the market,” says Heiko Pfister, Managing Director of Pekutherm. “Several PMMA processors are thankful to now have access to a recycling system within Europe and are increasingly avoiding exports outside the EU.” The alliance provides an advanced collection and sorting system for PMMA waste, along with options for mechanical recycling—and, in the future, chemical recycling. This enables the recovery of high-quality raw materials suitable for use in products with virgin-grade standards.

Röhm has long been collaborating with various partners on targeted projects to advance a circular economy for PMMA—particularly in the automotive sector. In partnership with supplier Valeo and the Renault Group’s consortium The Future Is NEUTRAL™, a prototype for vehicle taillights made from recycled PMMA has been developed. The Future Is NEUTRAL™ supplied end-of-life taillights, Röhm created new material formulations containing 30% mechanically recycled content, and Valeo produced a demonstrator using these materials. Röhm will showcase the prototype at this year’s K trade fair in October.

A second round of testing using chemically recycled taillights is already in the pipeline. “We want to leverage the activities and expertise of our recycling alliance to directly compare both recycling approaches,” says Sven Schröbel, Head of Sustainability Management for Röhm’s Molding Compounds business unit. The collaboration with Valeo and The Future Is NEUTRAL™ represents a key milestone on the path toward a successful circular economy in the automotive industry—an effort also driven by regulatory initiatives from the European Union. For instance, the European Parliament recently voted for the revision of the End-of-Life Vehicle Regulation (ELVR), The latest draft foreseen that future vehicles must contain at least 20% plastics sourced from post-consumer waste. To provide manufacturers with greater flexibility, up to 50% of this quota may be met using pre-consumer recycled materials.

As a founding member of the recycling alliance, Röhm is well-positioned to support automotive industry customers and actively contribute to the transition toward a more sustainable plastics sector.

The Future Is Neutral^TM

The Future Is NEUTRAL™ is a consortium established by the Renault Group to promote circular economy principles within the automotive industry. Its mission is to significantly increase the share of recycled materials in new vehicles—through technological innovation, industrial-scale solutions, and cross-sector collaboration.