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Global Impact Coalition’s Automotive Plastics Circularity Pilot Kicks-off Dismantling at Autodemontage Klaas Boer in the Netherlands
Eight global chemical and recycling leaders join forces to transform automotive plastics recycling
Geneva, 23 April 2025: The Global Impact Coalition (GIC) has brought together eight global leaders—BASF, Covestro, LG Chem, LyondellBasell, Mitsubishi Chemical Group, SABIC, SUEZ, and Syensqo—to launch a groundbreaking Automotive Plastics Circularity pilot. This pilot tackles the critical challenge of recycling plastics from End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs), with the goal of enabling auto manufacturers (OEMs) to access high-quality, closed-loop recycled polymers at scale.
What/When/where: Dismantling kicks-off on April 28th at Autodemontage Klaas Boer in Uithuizen, Netherlands. Klaas Boer is affiliated with the Automotive Recycling Nederlands (ARN) network. At the kick-off, Global Impact Coalition team members and representatives from each of the eight companies will meet on-site to initiate this unique dismantling process. The team from Autodemontage Klaas Boer will be using a specially equipped excavator to selectively remove automotive plastic parts which will be sorted into clusters of similar part and polymer types. Dismantling will take around two weeks, after which the parts will be shipped to Reyond in Germany for shredding, then sorted into plastic fractions at Steinert—also in Germany—before being sent to participating chemical and waste management companies for recycling.
Pilot overview: The pilot, taking place in the Netherlands and Germany, will dismantle, shred and sort plastic fractions, clustered into types of polymers and automotive parts from 100 end-of-life vehicles. These sorted plastic fractions will then be recycled by the collaborating companies with each of their specific technologies. Focusing on bulk aggregation of ELV plastics, the pilot will serve to test and optimize a new approach to dismantling, sorting and recycling plastic fractions under real-world conditions to optimize usage in new plastic parts.
Purpose of the pilot: This project is critical to advance plastics circularity along the automotive value chain. Each year, over 800’000 metric tons of ELV plastics in the EU are incinerated or landfilled, resulting in significant environmental and economic losses. This pilot is a key first step to transform this waste into valuable resources, enabling the automotive industry and OEMs to significantly increase the rate of closed-loop recycled plastics.
“This collaboration represents a turning point for the industry,” said Charlie Tan, CEO of the Global Impact Coalition. “Recycling ELV plastics has long been a challenge, with less than 20% of these materials recycled today. By uniting players from across the automotive value chain—from auto dismantlers to sorters, recyclers and the chemical industry—we are connecting the links to close the loop on plastics.”
About Global Impact Coalition:
The Global Impact Coalition (GIC) is a CEO-led platform driving the chemical value chain toward a circular, net-zero future. Incubated at the World Economic Forum, GIC turns sustainability challenges into commercial solutions through cross-industry collaboration. By co-developing and scaling new technologies and business models, GIC members tackle circularity & emissions reduction challenges that no single company can solve alone. For more information, visit GlobalImpactCoalition.com or LinkedIn @GlobalImpactCoalition.
Media Contact: Amanda Martin, GIC Communications Lead, +41 79 106 1777, amanda.martin@wearegic.com
