Rising raw material cost and regulatory pressure are forcing automotive manufacturers to design vehicles that can be easily recycled.
The complete recycling of a vehicle is a long process that requires the involvement of many participants: dismantlers, recyclers, industries that use recycled materials, shredders etc. The success of the entire recycling chain depends largely on the efforts of automotive manufacturers to make its work easier. This is why in the new millennium, Renault has taken initiatives to "Design for Recycling."
Each of us is now aware that the planet's resources are limited and are fast depleting. With this understanding comes the growing consensus that recycling is essential. It has become second nature to sort domestic waste. The recent implementation of an ecotax in France on household appliances has been well accepted. Awareness has also increased rapidly with the recent spike in raw material costs, an indication of the growing imbalance between supply and demand. The automobile industry is no doubt one of the pioneers in this field. Indeed, for sometime now the bodies of most end-of-life vehicles have been recovered by specialised paths. But this is no longer enough.
Cars are not made solely of metal. One must therefore try to recycle the rest of its components, especially polymers. However, this is a challenging task because it requires the establishment of economically viable recycling chains, organised by major categories of materials. Automotive manufacturers are unable to cater to all the aspects of the issue. Nevertheless, Renault has decided to do as much as possible to facilitate the emergence and success of these paths by incorporating the demands of recycling into the design of its vehicles.
Responding to the public concerns about recycling, the European Community adopted two directives that now serve as a framework for car manufacturers.
In effect since 2000, the first directive sets forth several principles. First, automakers must consider reuse, recycling and recovery of parts and materials during the design phase for all new vehicles. This "theoretical" requirement is combined with a series of quotas staggered in time, the most important of which is scheduled for 2015. By that time, all end-of-life vehicles must be 85 per cent recycled and 95 per cent recovered. In other words, on that date, 85 per cent of the vehicle's mass must embark on a second life, 10 per cent can be recovered for energy production and the remaining 5 per cent can be sent to industrial landfills.
In parallel, the directive requests that manufacturers boost the percentage of recycled materials used in their vehicles in order to promote the emergence and development of the recycling industry. The regulations require the marking of all parts made of polymers weighing more than 100g and all elastomer parts weighing over 200g. Moreover, it asks that certain regulated substances, or substances that could be regulated, be clearly identified on the vehicle to facilitate their recycling. Finally, the directive without really specifying the terms mentions that it will be the responsibility of car manufacturers to pay residual costs, if any, to meet the quotas. These are, evidently, very restrictive objectives that could generate major expenses if they are not met by 2015.
The second, more recent (November 2005) major directive on recycling contains two important points. It asks car manufacturers to present to the European authorities a recycling strategy based on proven technologies for a specific geographic area. Such a strategy should, for example, indicate what the manufacturer intends to do with polypropylene or glass in a given country, to which recycling path the materials shall be directed. It is true that recycling cannot be mandated-it presupposes the existence of economically viable industrial support and a favourable climate. The second point addressed in this directive is that by the end of 2008, for all new vehicle types entering the market, the manufacturers must prove that the models are indeed 85 per cent recyclable in their previously mentioned recycling strategy. Therefore, manufacturers must prove the recycling potential of the vehicles they manufacture and market. However, it should be noted that by 2010, this requirement shall no longer apply only to new models, but to all vehicles sold, including those designed before, hence Renault's proactive approach.
Since 2000, Renault has integrated recycling into the genes of its new models through a "design for recycling" approach. Renault's approach is explained with simple examples ranging from a "common sense" solution (particularly for parts affected by the pre-processing phase) to more ambitious solutions that take into account the constraints of materials recyclers are discussed in the following passages.
During vehicle development, windshield wiper fluid vessel is one of the last items to be assigned a spot in the engine compartment. Frankly, it is positioned wherever room is remaining in the compartment. The disadvantage from a recycling point of view is that it is often difficult to access and has a complicated shape, which makes the removal of fluid a tricky manoeuver for the dismantlers. To make their job easier, Renault has defined technical specifications so that it is possible to insert a hollow rod into the tank's lowest level and suction all remaining fluid.
For the moment there is only one satisfactory solution for removing fuel from the tank: perforate it with a hollow rod and suction it out. But it is important that the perforation be made at the lowest point so that all of the fluid can be removed and that it be made at an appropriate location to avoid the risk of sparks when perforated. This is why Renault decided to use recycling logos to visually identify the best suited points on its fuel tanks. A similar approach is applied with markings on the shock absorbers.
One of the challenges of recycling is to promote the development of economically viable businesses in the areas where automotive manufacturers sell their vehicles. Certainly one of the conditions of this viability is to somehow facilitate the work of "recyclers", for any additional sorting operation, whether manual or automated, will necessarily entail an increase in expenses, therefore a loss in value for the recycler.
Renault is one of the automotive manufacturers that have pushed the knowledge of upstream materials recycling processes the furthest. For example, we have analysed in great detail the polypropylene recycling process (which is the most used plastic in our vehicles) to prevent the design of anything that would pollute the polypropylene content removed during materials sorting- presence of parasite polymers of equal density, materials incompatible with the polypropylene process such as PVC, glued textiles, overly large metallic inserts etc.
Considering these limitations, Renault has created educational and design guidance tools to be used by all design engineers. These documents are often cited as a reference in the parts' technical specifications. In the case of parts that are complex to recycle, such as the door panels on the New Laguna, there are also design multiple polymers and is very difficult, if not impossible, to recycle as it is (Figure 3). Thus, to make it easier to recycle, we worked to the extent that all of its elements (speaker covers, shock absorbers etc.) located in the lower part of the panel be made entirely of polypropylene. Recyclers can cut along the visible markings to recover and recycle more than 1.5 kilogrammes of matter per panel. This innovation has been patented and is visible to our customers, thanks to the affixing of the conventional logo to symbolise this recycling.
Because the definition of recycled material is debatable, Renault has chosen to adopt ISO Standard 14021. Renault has been carrying out an ambitious recycling policy since the 1990s notably since the launch of the Clio, which was the first vehicle to use recycled materials (wheel housing liner). Since then, from one model to the next, Renault has continuously increased the volume of recycled materials- Megane II has 16kg, Modus has 18kg and the new Laguna uses more than 32kg of recycled material. We have lofty goals for our new projects. Our objective is to have 20 per cent of recycled plastic in our new vehicles by 2015.
Recycled materials are usually perceived as being a second choice, and yet this is not a foregone conclusion. It is believed that a well-recycled material can maintain a value close to that of the original material with characteristics identical to the replaced product. One of the innovations in this vein was the introduction of, for the first time in the Megane II, decorative parts made from recycled plastic, whereas this material had previously been relegated to equipment areas that are not visible to the customer.
As for Modus, it contains one of the largest parts ever made from this type of material-the dashboard structure with a weight of 4.5 kilogrammes. This part must combine structural requirements with thermal requirements (it also serves as an air passage for climate control). The new Laguna with more than 90 parts made from recycled materials is the most striking example.
In a market where the price of raw materials is unstable, Renault has endeavoured to minimise the cost of recycling, while avoiding losses in the value of materials used in its vehicles when they are recycled. Renault's great strength lies in the fact that its designers are developing parts with the aim of incorporating the "Design for Recycling" criterion in the earliest upstream phases of product development. Due to early planning (2000) for the requirements of European directives and a pragmatic approach to recycling by integrating future European recycling scenarios, Renault has taken many steps toward reaching the 2015 targets at a lower cost.
Fabrice Abraham is the Manager of the team "Design for Recycling" at Renault, and is in charge of integrating recyclability, recycled material and substances management in the new vehicle development.
