Honda Develops New “Chemical Sorting” Technology to Separate Solid Contaminants from Waste Plastics Derived from End-of-life Automobiles
TOKYO, Japan, September 16, 2025 – (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) – Honda R&D Co., Ltd. (Honda) today announced that it has developed a new “chemical sorting” technology, which sorts and extracts reusable plastics from waste plastic parts that contain solid contaminants unique to automotive waste. Honda will build a pilot facility with a maximum processing capacity of 350 tons per year and verify the technology by the end of 2026, striving to put it into practical use by around 2029.The solid contaminant separation technology newly developed by Honda uses chemical sorting, that dissolves the resin in a solvent to remove solid contaminants and extract high-purity resin. Waste automotive plastic parts generally contain non-plastic solid contaminants such as metal inserts*1, pieces of rubber hoses and gaskets, and reinforcing materials such as glass fiber contained in the resin. To date, recycling of waste plastic parts containing solid contaminants has been done mostly through “phy…