“With 'Design for Recycling', we start by consequently thinking about the end – and beyond.”

Christoph Seeger: Reducing our carbon footprint is not only an obligation for us as a company and as a society, but also a forward-looking topic with great potential for innovation. It is an issue that must not and will not disappear from the agenda in times of global challenges such as international trade conflicts and economic uncertainty. This applies not only to all areas at Continental, but also to the Automotive Interior segment in the Surface Solutions business unit. The circular economy in the production of vehicle interior surfaces is driving us and keeps us very busy – because the importance of interior surfaces does not end with the life cycle of the vehicle. On the one hand, politics is setting the guidelines for how automobiles can be manufactured in a way that conserves raw materials as much as possible and how they can be returned to a reusable material cycle after use. On the other hand, end customers' interest in green solutions is continuously growing.

After all, passengers feel more comfortable in a vehicle interior if they know that they are making a positive contribution to the environment. We are therefore investing a great deal of energy in solving the highly complex issues surrounding this topic.

Manfred Jahncke: Vehicle interior surfaces consist of a variety of different components in a wide range of designs. In order to meet the high demands in terms of performance, durability, surface design and feel, these components are usually made up of different material classes. Very often, they are composites made of a wide variety of polymer types. Separating these at the end of their life cycle and returning them to the recycling process is very demanding and means having to turn a lot of things upside down and rethink them. This is where we start to develop products and solutions that are designed for recyclability from the outset. A few years ago, this seemed like an almost impossible task, but we firmly believe that we can challenge the status quo. Once components have been fed into the recycling process, another challenge is to provide recyclates of consistently high quality. We have already mastered this with numerous products.

Seeger: To achieve circularity, all processes throughout the entire product life cycle must be strictly controlled and optimized. This also includes a reorientation of material selection, production processes and recycling strategies. With the “Designed for Recycling” concept, we want to do justice to this and try to take a comprehensive circular view of all material flows.

Jahncke: Our strategy is based on the 3 Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle. The aim is to minimize the use of fossil raw materials and to increase the proportion of recycled materials to the same extent – without any loss of individual product properties. We achieve this by incorporating recyclates from all areas of the plastic components' life cycle, i.e. both rejects and film scrap from production, in other words post-industrial recycling, as well as recyclates from other sources, i.e. post-consumer recycling.

To be truly circular, however, we go one step further with Designed for Recycling: We rely on single-material composites – monomaterials – wherever possible. These enable us to generate raw materials for our products and facilitate the joint recycling of components at the end of their useful life. With Designed for Recycling for vehicle interior surfaces, we start by consequently thinking about the end – and beyond. We are also convinced that, in addition to Designed for Recycling, Chemical Recycling of plastics by breaking them down into their chemical building blocks, should be recognized as part of circular processes. Only in this way can the amount of plastic waste be significantly reduced and the proportion of circular sources for manufacturing new, high-quality products reliably increased.

Seeger: This is certainly feasible for vehicle interior surfaces, albeit with hurdles. But two things are needed: further research and, in particular, development in this field. Continental is well on the way to implementation and has already achieved considerable success, but is also in a constant learning process. In order to apply more sustainability to vehicle interior surfaces, we also need partners who are all pulling in the same direction: sub suppliers, us as the surface manufacturers, and the automotive manufacturers who rely on and recognize the potential of our products. The common goal must be to achieve industrialization.

Jahncke: Our strengths lie, among other things, in our material expertise and our interdisciplinary team. At Continental, we not only have highly professional chemists and engineers who know what these materials can do, how they have to be formulated and structured, and which adhesives have to be used to ensure that the component can be recycled as efficiently as possible after use. With our cross-departmental sustainability management, we also have the in-house expertise to think and plan processes in a holistically circular way. The fact that we have already launched carbon-neutral films is just one example of this. And we are proud of the fact that we already offer films and artificial leather that contain over 90 percent non-fossil raw materials.

Seeger: The best way to describe this for customers is as a one-stop shop. As Manfred Jahncke has already explained, we have extensive research and development expertise in surface materials for every conceivable interior application: on instrument panels, center consoles, seats, door panels, floors or headliners.

We are also at home when it comes to design – color, print, look and feel – and can offer our customers products and solutions for all areas of application and use cases for interior surfaces. This is because the perception and experience of vehicle interiors is becoming increasingly important for the differentiation of automobile manufacturers. And then there is our Technical Consulting: Here we combine all the development and production steps and offer our partners a Center of Know-how when it comes to product and prototype development and production planning or control. Our Technical Consulting works closely with suppliers, carries out processing tests and serves as an interface for all parties involved. How should production facilities be configured in the best case? How can scrap be minimized? How should an adhesive be applied to ensure that a component works best? Our Technical Consulting team answers all these questions.

Jahncke: Although we at Continental have already made great strides in materials research and the recyclability of our surface foils, we still face significant challenges. For one thing, clarity regarding the regulatory requirements is needed as quickly as possible. It is crucial that the EU create a clear framework for all players so that we can achieve maximum circularity in automotive production. At the same time, we need to continue investing in research and development. We want to take the next step together with our partners.

Seeger: At the same time, we have to remain realistic. We – and by that I mean all the players in the value chain, i.e. sub suppliers, suppliers, manufacturers and retailers – have to make it clear to the market that recyclability comes at a price. We have all committed to doing more to preserve our natural resources, and we all know that this is not for free. That is why we have to succeed in positioning more recycling and more sustainability in the automobile as real added value. This applies particularly to vehicle interior surfaces. After all, where else are occupants more closely connected with the vehicle than when they have their hand on the wheel and are feeling, sensing and smelling the car with their senses?