Since May 2025, the Volkswagen Foundation has been funding a plastics recycling project on on the basis of solvents.

The solvent-based research project on plastics recycling, entitled ‘Closing the loop of complex post-consumer waste from end-of-life vehicles (ELV) to high-quality automotive interior applications – Interior Loop’, is receiving around 1.1 million euros from the non-profit foundation. According to the Volkswagen Foundation, it builds on an already established recycling process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV, which extracts high-purity recyclates from automotive shredder residues – even if these are heavily mixed with other materials. The aim of the project is to optimise these recycled materials so that they also meet high mechanical requirements and do not emit any undesirable emissions, enabling them to be used in vehicle interiors. According to the Volkswagen Foundation, the Fraunhofer Institute IVV and the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP are jointly implementing the project.

 

Further information:

• External link to the Volkswagen Foundation website with information about the project (in German)
• External link to the website of the Fraunhofer Institute IVV

Sources:

• VolkswagenStiftung (1.4.2025)
• Fraunhofer IVV (8.4.2025)
• Photo: © Danny Sleeuwenkook / Unsplash (symbolic image)