Measuring Recycled
Content of
Automotive
Products
Guidance Document
September 2021
Guidance on Measuring Recycled Content of Automotive Products
September 2021
Established Scope
• The Suppliers Partnership for the Environment (SP) Materials Efficiency Work Group
(MEWG) works to promote collaboration amongst automotive manufacturers and suppliers
to increase use of sustainable practices, processes, and materials in the production and
content of vehicles, and to incentivize sustainable innovation.
• While there are established definitions of certain key terms related to the topic of sustainable
materials that have been developed by other organizations, investigation by SP indicates a
range of definitions and interpretations of such terms may be in use across industry today.
We are not aware of any organization that has developed a commonly accepted definition of
key terms for measuring the use of sustainable materials in the automotive industry to date.
• Therefore, an SP MEWG Sustainable Materials Definitions Sub-team was formed with the
objective to develop straightforward common definitions of key terms related to sustainable
materials to minimize duplication of effort and promote consistent approaches in
communications with suppliers, sustainability reporting and measuring industry progress.
• SP is collaborating with AIAG in the development of these definitions to promote common,
consistent language across industry.
• The purpose of this guidance document is to outline a common industry-supported definition
and approach for measuring recycled content of automotive products consistent with those
approaches outlined in other standards.
Next Steps: Going forward, the SP MEWG Sustainable Materials Definitions Sub-team intends
to build on learnings from this process to address common definitions for additional aspects of
sustainable materials where needed.
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Guidance on Measuring Recycled Content of Automotive Products
September 2021
Recycled Material replaces virgin materials in the process.
• Excluded is internal re-use of materials reclaimed within the same process that generated it
(considered same as virgin) without any change to composition or form, only changes to size.
This is true even if the material resizing is done by a third-party or as a contracted service.
• Regrind1 and rework2 alone do not count as recycled content if they are being used to
produce the same product or component. They will count as recycled content if they are
used to produce a different product or component. They will also count if they go through
another process (secondary process) prior to use with the same product or component.
• A secondary process may include mechanical or advanced recycling processes, alloying,
contamination removal, or blending and represents more processing than simply resizing a
segregated material (size reduction). Materials processed in this way will have some change in
form or composition.
Recycled Material includes:
• Post-Industrial (Pre-Consumer): Material diverted from the waste stream during a
manufacturing process that would not be saleable as a product. Included is reprocessed
material from recovered products that left a manufacturing operation in saleable condition but
were never sold to an end consumer or put into use for their intended purpose (pre-consumer).
Excluded is re-use of materials reclaimed within the same process that generated it (considered
same as virgin).
• Post-Consumer: Material discarded by an end consumer. Included is any material generated
by households or by commercial, industrial and institutional facilities in their role as end-users of
the product which can no longer be used for its intended purpose.
1
Regrind: Recovered material that has been used at least once in a manufacturing process and has gone through a size reduction process to be
made into smaller pieces for reuse into the same product from which it was generated.
2
Rework: Materials or products that did not meet specifications upon exiting a process and require one or more tasks to be completed to correct the
errors before entering the next processing step or finished goods inventory.
Note: The above flowchart is a simple representation of what can be a complex system and is intended for illustrative purposes only.
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Guidance on Measuring Recycled Content of Automotive Products
September 2021
Recycled Content represents the proportion of recycled
material, by mass, incorporated in the process.
R1+R2+R3
X (%) = V+R1+R2+R3
Total Material Input to Process T=V+R1+R2+R3
Sources of Recycled Material content may include:
• R1: Material that has gone through another process (secondary process) prior to use with the
same product, component, or manufacturing process. It is scrap3 that is sent to a separate
process and brought back in a different form and/or with composition adjustments.
• R2: Material recovered from a downstream manufacturing process or end user of the same or
another product that is used in a manufacturing process.
• R3: Recycled portion of purchased raw material, including materials recovered or generated by
other industries4. Only the recycled portion of a purchased raw material may be counted when
material consists of recycled and virgin content.
Note 1: To determine recycled content of a multi-material product, each material that goes into a product should be
evaluated individually and the result of all materials summed to determine the total proportion of recycled material in
the finished product. Companies should be transparent in reporting their calculation methods, including any
estimation or assumptions, and maintain data necessary to substantiate reporting for each material.
Note 2: The proportion of post-industrial (PIR) and / or post-consumer (PCR) recycled material may also be
calculated separately, if necessary.
• Post-Industrial (PIR) recycled content represents the total proportion, by mass, of post-industrial input
materials incorporated in the process.
• Post-Consumer (PCR) recycled content represents the total proportion, by mass, of post-consumer input
materials incorporated in the process.
3
Scrap: Rejected or discarded material generated by a manufacturing process that is useful only after it is reprocessed.
4
Other industries may include raw material suppliers, salvage/scrapyards, and others.
Note: The above flowchart is a simple representation of what can be a complex system and is intended for illustrative purposes only.
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Guidance on Measuring Recycled Content of Automotive Products
September 2021
Conclusion
The purpose of this document is to outline a common industry-supported definition and approach for
measuring recycled content of automotive products. This document is a simple representation of what
can be a complex system and is intended for illustrative purposes only. We fully expect that this
document will not answer all questions a company may have but it is intended to provide a common
industry-supported framework for determination of recycled content.
References for Further Information
• FTC Green Guides, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 2012.
• GRI 301: Materials, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), 2016.
• GRI Standards Glossary, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), 2018.
• ISO 14021:2016, Environmental labels and declarations — Self-declared environmental claims,
ISO - International Organization for Standardization, 2016.
• Automobiles: Sustainability Accounting Standard, SASB, 2018.
• Auto Parts: Sustainability Accounting Standard, SASB, 2018.
• Enabling A Circular Economy For Chemicals With The Mass Balance Approach, The Ellen
MacArthur Foundation, 2020.
• Interpreting pre-consumer recycled content claims, UL, 2020.
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