Bumper Crop: Mazda Harvests Organs Of Old Cars
Old cars, euphemistically known as “end-of-life vehicles” or ELVs are turning into a menace. It’s because of the increased used of new materials, also known as plastics. Whereas the scrap of older cars was welcome fodder for the furnaces of steel and cast iron makers around the world, the plastic piles up on landfills, or is burned. Mazda says it has “become the world’s first automaker to successfully recycle scrapped bumpers from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) into raw material for new vehicle bumpers.”
The new technology was inaugurated on August 21, 2011 and is initially being used to make rear bumpers for the Mazda Biante minivan. Before, if ELV bumpers didn’t land on landfills, they were processed into automobile shredder residue (ASR) and incinerated to recover heat energy, a process equally euphemistically called “thermal recycling.”
Mazda got into the bumper recycling business when it began processing damaged bumpers collected from in-use vehicles through its dealer network in Japan. In the 1990s,Mazda began designing bumpers to be easily recyclable. Now finally, the cost of recycling is less than the cost of purchasing new plastic. Bumpers make the biggest part of the automobile shredder residue.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Entire bumper covers as pictured are commonly found along the road here in the SF bay area. Is there a bounty on 'em?
Mr Schmitt, a clarification please. Does the Mazda press release specifically say that the polymers will be recycled into new bumpers, or just that the polymer will be recycled? Injection molding of polyethylene to make bumpers is somewhat tricky and best done with virgin PE with a carefully controlled molecular mass distribution and well controlled additive concentrations. Recycled polymer does not have these characteristics. Typically, polyolefins are downgraded to things like carpet or upholstery fibers, or park benches, when they are recycled. If they are making new bumpers our of old bumpers that is significant and not just a greenwashing press release.