CROSS-CUTTING DRIVERS FOR VEHICLE RECYCLING: DAIMLER-CHRYSLER EXAMPLE

• Large-scale vehicle dismantling centers

• Engine dismantling center

• Part coding for plastic components

• Design for environment tools (LCA, Ecopoints)

• Plastic sortation technologies

• Natural fibers (sisal and flax) in FRP

• End-of-life vehicle take-back legislation

• Industry agreements on recycled content and fuel economy
  • 75% by weight by 2001, increasing to 95% by 2010
  • 40% improvement in fuel economy by 2006

• ISO 14000 compliance

• Cultural compatibility between Europe and U.S.

• Subsidies to suppliers to allow compliance to ISO 14000

• Litigation risk based on regional environmental concerns

• Government subsidies for research on environmentally benign materials

• Daimler-Chrysler must respond to different sets of environmental objectives in Europe vs U.S., leading to issues in corporate-wide integration of EBM practices
  • Europe - fuel economy, greenhouse gases
  • U.S. - emissions, soli pollution

• First integration effort will focus on engine design and material selection

• Even in Europe, product end-of-life infrastructure is not economically viable without significant government mandate/subsidies
  • Private efforts in Germany to institute electronics take-back without legislation have been unable to economically scale up