Life Cycle Assessment of Recycled Polypropylene Derived from End-of-Life Vehicles for Automotive Recycling

The EU End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Regulation mandates the use of recycled plastics in new vehicles, highlighting the importance of ensuring the environmental performance and circularity of recycled plastics derived from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). Among automotive plastics, polypropylene (PP) is one of the most widely used materials for bumpers, interior components, and trim parts, making it a key target for closed-loop (car-to-car) recycling. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted for the mechanical recycling process of ELV-derived PP based on primary industrial data collected from a commercial ELV plastic recycling facility. The system boundary included the sorting, shredding, and extrusion processes for producing recycled PP pellets. Environmental impacts were assessed using the ecoinvent life cycle inventory (LCI) database and major impact categories, including global warming potential (GWP), were evaluated. The environmental performance of recycled PP was also compared with that of virgin PP. The results showed that ELV-derived recycled PP significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions compared with virgin PP. Electricity consumption during the mechanical recycling process was identified as the dominant contributor to the overall environmental impacts. This study provides a quantitative environmental assessment of ELV-derived recycled PP based on real industrial recycling data and offers valuable environmental data to support the development of closed-loop automotive recycling systems and compliance with the EU ELV Regulation.