Toyota helps deliver world-first copper recycling tech

Copper is one of the world’s most sought-after metals and is in high demand for infrastructure development in emerging markets and is also used in the manufacture of electric motors for hybrid powertrains.

By Autocar Pro News Desk calendar 07 Apr 2014 Views icon4283 Views Share - Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to LinkedIn Share to Whatsapp
Toyota helps deliver world-first copper recycling tech

Copper is one of the world’s most sought-after metals and is in high demand for infrastructure development in emerging markets and is also used in the manufacture of electric motors for hybrid powertrains. Yet independent estimates suggest that, at current levels, the global mineable supply will be exhausted in around 40 years. Now, there could be a sustainable solution. Japanese carmaker Toyota has worked with a group of industry partners to define a world-first system to retrieve and recycle copper from vehicle wiring harnesses, helping secure a valuable new source of the raw material.

070414toy2

Toyota and its project partners Yazaki and Toyota Tsusho began working with eight specialist vehicle dismantling businesses in Japan in 2010 on a wide-ranging programme that included establishing quality requirements for pre-processing vehicles that have reached the end of their useful life.

Previously it had not been possible to recycle harnesses for their copper content using mechanical methods but a year later, Toyota came up with a new sorting method that safeguards the metal from contamination by minute impurities during the dismantling process.

Trials were subsequently launched at its Honsha plant in 2013, and after stringent quality checks, the retrieved copper was successfully reintroduced into the vehicle production process.

The technology has delivered recycled metal with 99.96 percent purity, a level which can secure stable production quality. Toyota estimates as much as 1,000 tonnes of copper can be produced annually using the new process.

RELATED ARTICLES
Skoda begins sale of made-in-India CKD Kushaq in Vietnam

auther Autocar Professional Bureau calendar30 Jun 2025

Before production started, pre-series Kushaq vehicles covered over 330,000 kilometres on a variety of Vietnamese roads a...

Six Japanese companies join forces to expand use of recycled materials in new vehicles

auther Autocar Professional Bureau calendar30 Jun 2025

Denso, Toray Industries, Nomura Research Institute, Honda Motor, Matec Inc and Rever Corporation have set up the BlueReb...

BYD selects Voestalpine as steel supplier for its Hungarian plant

auther Autocar Professional Bureau calendar28 Jun 2025

The announcement of the Austrian steelmaker as a supplier demonstrates BYD’s strategic plan to source from high-quality,...