JLR cracks the code for recycling seat foam

Recycling is a high priority for car makers – and breakthroughs continue to be made. JLR, for instance, recently announced it has made further progress by successfully recycling polyurethane seat foam for use in the production of new seats.

The material is being put through the full production process at the moment and will be trialled first in pre-production cars early next year. JLR claims this is a first in the automotive sector.

The company is by no means last to the party when it comes to recycling. With its manufacturing partners, JLR implemented full-scale recycling of scrap aluminium at its stamping plants over a decade ago.

It also incorporated 16kg of recycled plastics into the original Range Rover Evoque of 2011.

The materials were used in headliners, seat covers, the centre console, wheel-arch liners and other components, plus each car had 21kg of high-quality renewable material, such as cotton and cardboard.

Recycling polyurethane foam may have proved more of a challenge and is the result of collaboration between JLR, Dow Mobility Science and automotive seat maker Adient.

Ongoing research at the JLR Circularity Lab in Gaydon played a crucial role. The idea of recycling everything is attractive but not always feasible, particularly where mixed materials are involved.

Sometimes it’s difficult to separate them effectively, if at all. Some recycled plastics are never returned to their original use, so materials used for ‘class A’ finishes in an interior may be ground up and recycled into, say, boot carpets.

The JLR Circularity Lab feeds data directly into a vehicle’s development process at an early stage to assess the feasibility of returning various materials into the supply chain at the same level of quality.

One example is a rethink on the chemistry involved in plastic bumpers, where researchers found the same quality could be achieved using fewer polymers.

JLR calculates doing this can save an equivalent of 17,500kg of CO2 over a single model line of 250,000 vehicles, along with a cost saving of £560,000.

When it comes to full production, what JLR calls the ‘circular seat’, which includes the recycled foam, is expected to halve emissions to the tune of 44kg of CO2, or the equivalent in greenhouse gases, per seat.

Polyurethane generally is widely used in car interiors, probably more so today due to the growing demand for premium substitutes for leather other than leather lookalikes.

Although not foams, many of these are polyurethane-based and the material’s use has been around for decades.

Some well-known luxury finishes, such as Alcantara, sometimes mistaken for brushed leather, are made from 68% polyester and 32% polyurethane.