Mazda Recycles Scrapped Bumpers for New Vehicles

For the first time in the world, Mazda Motor Corp., a major Japanese automaker, has begun successfully recycling bumpers from scrapped vehicles into raw materials for new vehicle bumpers. The new technology was employed on August 21, 2011, for the production of rear bumpers for its "Biante" minivan.

Bumpers from scrapped vehicles are commonly sorted as automotive shredder residue (ASR) and incinerated to recover thermal energy. Recycling used bumpers into material for new vehicle bumpers improves the material recycling rate of vehicles and contributes to more efficient use of resources.

Since Mazda introduced recyclable designing for new vehicles in 1990s, the number of scrapped vehicles with such design has been increasing, which makes it easier to dismantle bumpers efficiently. The company has also developed technology to effectively collect and process scrapped bumpers in cooperation with Yamako Corp. and Takase Gosei Kagaku Corp. Consequently Mazda has successfully reduced the recycling cost to be less than the cost for purchasing new material.

In the immediate future, Mazda plans to collect bumpers from scrapped vehicles in the Hiroshima area and manufacture new vehicle bumpers by adding about 10 percent recycled material.

Mazda Develops World's First Automatic Bumper Recycling Process (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/029171.html
Car Recycling Law Applied Effectively in 2005 (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/026481.html

Posted: 2011/12/07 06:00:15 AM

TAG Manufacturing industry , Material reduction