MBA Polymers UK launches car bumper recycling initiative

MBA Polymers UK Ltd. has launched a recycling initiative to recycle damaged or end-of-life car bumpers into polymers for use in the automotive industry.

By receiving bumpers from authorized treatment facilities (ATFs), insurers and garages at two of its U.K. sites, MBA Polymers UK says its new service offers a range of sustainability benefits, such as reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in landfill, reducing the carbon emissions required to produce its materials, assisting car makers in meeting strict new recycling targets and advancing the automotive industry towards a standardized circular economy.

Recycling bumpers directly rather than reclaiming the polymers following the automobile shredding processes will enable MBA Polymers UK to explore the production of improved performance grades to complement its existing offering to the automotive sector, according to the company.

Under the EU’s draft ELV Directive, automakers are required to ensure that 25 percent of the plastic used in new cars comes from recycled sources (25 percent of which must come from ELVs), creating a circular supply chain for the valuable plastics already available in cars on the road today, MBA Polymers UK notes.

The company produces recycled acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polypropylene, talc-fill polypropylene (FPP), high-impact polystyrene and high-density polyethylene by using postconsumer polymers from end-of-life vehicles and electrical goods (WEEE), achieving carbon savings of between 75 percent and 86 percent, making them the first recycled plastics to carry the Carbon Trust's Lower CO₂ label.

MBA Polymers UK says its recently launched recycled ABS contains 95 percent or more recycled content (versus an industry average closer to 70 percent) and has been UL listed.

In 2023, MBA Polymers UK opened a fourth site in Wimblington, Cambridgeshire, that increases the company’s capacity to recycle and process material by 35 percent. That site joins sites in Worksop, Dover, and Duddeston, in the West Midlands, which now accept car bumpers for processing.

MBA Polymers UK General Manager Paul Mayhew says, “We are always looking to find new ways to create the sustainable materials manufacturers actually need—in as efficient and environmentally friendly way as possible. The aim of our car bumper recycling initiative is to create a circular ecosystem to enable end-of-life bumpers to go back into the bumpers of tomorrow.

“We believe that recycling the bumpers, before the end-of-life vehicle recycling process, will allow MBA Polymers UK to harness the intrinsic properties of the material and produce a high-performance polymer to go back into visual exterior parts.”