But 80 million pounds of car plastic still end up in B.C. landfills each year

The B.C. government has given funding to a Burnaby recycling brand whose work diverts automotive plastic waste from landfills and turns it into new products.  

Reclaim Plastics is a plastics processing company that works with large entities like businesses and municipalities to remove plastics from the waste system. Within the automotive realm, most of the plastic that ends up on Reclaim’s site is from the collision industry, which feeds materials from the ~850 car accidents that happen in the province each day. 

As part of the CleanBC Plastics Action Fund , Reclaim Plastics has received $667,000 to help “scale up operations and allow it to recycle other automotive plastics that have not been abstracted to date.” 

The company is currently only skimming the surface, as some 80 million pounds of automotive plastic end up in B.C. landfills each year. For reference, the heaviest object ever weighed (according to Guinness) is the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which squashes the scales at 4.86 million lbs. 

We contacted Reclaim Plastics partner Al Boflo to get some more details on what car parts are being recycled and how. 

Cars these days contain at least 400 to 500 pounds of plastic, an amount which continues to increase for fuel efficiency and to create lighter vehicles. There are about 5 different types of plastic used within cars, including polypropylene, polyethylene, polycarbonate, TPO, PVC, and ABS. Most of the plastics can be recycled, but the challenge of separation, sorting, and cleansing of contaminants is a different matter altogether. 

Some parts that we regularly recycle include bumpers, spoilers, valences, fender trim moldings, headlight & taillight casings and covers, wheel liners, and bed liners. Interior trim such as trim panels, dash panel trim, and consoles can also be recycled, but are not removed very often. Same goes with engine bay trim, including engine covers and air baffles.

Yes, all plastic parts that can be separated (i.e. the plastic polymers are the same) can be recycled. The caveat is that you can’t take a mixed bunch of plastic parts that variously contain, PP, ABS, PVC, and PC for instance, and recycle them together. In order to recycle, the components need to be separated by polymer. And sorting black plastic – which most car parts are – is extremely challenging. 

We first sort the plastics by polymer. We then decontaminate the parts. For example, in the case of a TPO bumper, contaminants may include metal parts, clips, sensor brackets made from different polymers, and/or an ABS grill, which is incompatible with TPO. Once this part is clean of all contaminants, we then group it with other TPO parts and put this through a shredding and granulating process to create “re-grind flake.” We then work with partners who extrude and further process this material.

These items get a second life if a variety of products. It may end up in piping, or as planters, or even as plastic pallets.

Manufacturers, including the vehicle manufacturers, are looking for ways to re-incorporate the material back into car parts. But it comes down to volume available, purity, and shipping costs. 

A lot of the auto plastics we recycle come from the collision industry. We offer a pick-up service for the body shops and service shops across B.C., and select parts of Alberta. We are also working on a solution for shops in Washington State. 

We are also trying to work with metal recyclers to be able to recycle the automotive plastics before the vehicle gets shredded. Once the car gets shredded, the plastics in an end-of-life vehicle get mixed with fabric, rubber, glass, and sometimes ugly stuff like mercury. All of that ends up becoming Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR), which is landfilled. B.C. generates 80 million pounds of plastic that becomes ASR each year, so it’s a big environmental problem to solve.

Vancouver has been doing pretty well. Metro Vancouver has banned the disposal of auto parts in the landfill, which helps encourage more recycling. Body shops generally want to do the right thing, and many shops hate seeing this plastic enter the landfill. However, it is expensive to do this work, and it would be nice to see if there was some support for the bodyshops to help them offset the costs of recycling.  

We hope the insurance industry will help support their efforts to recycle. After all, we pay for insurance in case of an accident, and, in a collision, the insurance company is paying for the replacement parts to be replaced. Shouldn’t they also be helping to ensure the end-of-life part is responsibly recycled, rather than turfed in the landfill? 

Responses have been edited for clarity.

Sign up to receive Driving.ca's Blind-Spot Monitor newsletter on Wednesdays and Saturdays

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Driving.ca's Blind-Spot Monitor will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4

© 2022 Driving, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.

This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Edit your picks to remove vehicles if you want to add different ones.

You can only add up to 5 vehicles to your picks.