Recycling trend of plastic materials for automobiles

The most used material for automobile plastics is polypropylene, which is mainly used for relatively large parts such as bumpers and instrument panels. Various recycling methods are being investigated and recycling for these parts are discussed in this report. Paint films function as foreign objects amongst the materials from recycled bumpers and this results in degradation of properties. Several methods to remove paint films have been proposed, among which mechanical and chemical decomposition methods are explained in this report. As conventional instrument panels are made from composite materials where three types of different materials are laminated together, methods to detach each material are also discussed.