Are scarce metals in cars functionally recycled?

Critical metals in end-of-life products

“…One challenge is that CRM contents of current products may differ from those in the end-of-life products if the lifespan of the product is long, but if possible, this was also considered. Andersson et al (2016). The ranges represent variations in three different diesel-powered car models studied with weights ranging from 1.5 to 2.2 tonnes.…”

“…The three models are the most commonly used in Sweden (Cullbrand & Magnusson, 2011) and the CRM content is based on conditions in 2012 (Andersson et al, 2016). Since the studied cars in Andersson et al (2016) are from the same brand and production period, it is clear that the variations will be larger when considering the entire car fleet. The largest quantities of critical materials can be found in metallurgical, catalytic and electrical and electronic applications.…”

“…In this data, vehicles used for the carriage of goods (category N1 as defined in Directive 70/156/EEC) is also included and is not directly comparable with the ELV amounts previously mentioned in this report as only category M1 is included. An important conclusion drawn by Andersson et al (2016), who studied the CRM recycling from ELVs in Sweden, is that even if recycling rates for ELVs are rather high in general, the risk of losing scarce metals from ELVs is high as they are often lost to carrier metals, construction materials, backfilling materials and landfills. The metals found to be functionally recycled, i.e.…”

Analyzing How Governance of Material Efficiency Affects the Environmental Performance of Product Flows: A Comparison of Product Chain Organization of Swedish and Dutch Metal Packaging Flows

“…Regarding the commonly used waste hierarchy, it was found not to apply generally to plastics due to uncertain assumptions in existing studies [10]. In addition, it was shown that a majority of the scarce metals in Swedish vehicles were not functionally recycled and that this was obscured by a high overall recycling rate for the vehicles [11]. In conclusion, additional studies on recycling governance and its environmental performance seem warranted in order to gain a better understanding of governance solutions and their limitations.…”

Closing the loop on platinum from catalytic converters: Contributions from material flow analysis and circularity indicators

“…The European Commission (2015) defines the CE as an economy “where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and the generation of waste minimized.” On this basis, securing a sustainable availability of CRM can be accomplished by improving the circularity efficiency of the entire value chain, for example, through the implementation of closed‐loop approaches (Stahel, ). In fact, the adoption of CE strategies can be a long‐term strategy to mitigate the risks of CRM supply at the European scale (Gaustad, Krystofik, Bustamante, & Badami, ; UNEP, ), for example, by improving recycling rates of scarce metals from end‐of‐life vehicles (Andersson, Ljunggren Söderman, & Sandén, ) like the platinum which may be functionally recycled in its main application without facing the issue of downcycling. Furthermore, state‐of‐the‐art refining centers can recover up to 98% of the platinum from used CC (JM, ).…”