Management Consultant. Monitor Company

The automobile recycling industry in North America is a success story in material recovery. It operates unregulated, market driven. It is an example of how effectively self-profit-maximising parties, without interference, can manage recycling. Or at least, that is the claim. However, reductions in vehicle weight and increases in plastic composition might undermine the future viability of the industry. This work assesses these threats and the influence that automakers have on the industry. It is argued that if historical trends in vehicle composition continue, the automobile recycling industry will be destroyed. However, automakers have the opportunity to improve the viability of the industry, although common wisdom may not work: increases in the level of Design for Disassembly, for example, might not result in more recycling. This work presents the Automobile Recycling Dynamic Model, which incorporates prices, physical flows, delays, and the industry participants ’ decision processes is the basis for this research