The end of the road

Toyota always designs and manufactures its vehicles with an eye on the three R's: reduce, reuse and recycle.

Our 2015 target in Europe is to have 95% of the car by weight reused or recovered, of which 10% can be used for thermal recovery.

Find out what we're doing right to achieving this milestone ahead of schedule.

How is the recycling process maximised?

Toyota always designs and manufactures its vehicles with an eye on the three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Our 2015 target in Europe is to have 95% of the car by weight reused or recovered, of which 10% can be used for thermal recovery (i.e. energy recovered through incineration). Thanks to our integrated recycling approach, we’re on-track to achieving this milestone ahead of schedule.

Avoiding harmful substances

Lead, together with mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, are heavy metals that cause long-term damage to the environment if buried unprocessed in landfill. Our cars are now virtually free of these heavy metals. For example, we use zero-lead car parts and anti-corrosion coating as well as mercury-free lighting and switches. We also avoid harmful substances in solvents and various kinds of paints.

Reusing parts

Batteries, tyres and oil filters all need to be replaced during a vehicle’s lifetime. Toyota has set up a waste collection system that retrieves used parts from European retailers and sends them back for recovery. We also recondition more robust parts. “Remanufactured” parts include air conditioning compressors, power steering racks, cylinder heads, starters, automatic transmissions, alternators, engines and clutch kits

What about the recycling of hybrid batteries?

EU Directive 2006/66/EC was adopted in 2006 and enforced in Member States in 2008. The final treatment company meets the legally-required target of an average weight of 50% for industrial batteries, such as the nickel metal hydride battery used in Toyota’s hybrid Prius.

Driver take-back points

When a vehicle reaches the end of its life, it must be disposed of properly so that no harmful substances are allowed to contaminate the soil and groundwater. Drivers can return their Toyota or Lexus car to a designated take-back point, now set up in 30 countries across Europe. For more information, click here and select your country of residence.

Easy to dismantle

To simplify the dismantling process, Toyota has designed new ‘Easy to Dismantle’ marks. They show useful points for dismantling, like the positions at which large resin parts can be separated easily and the points where holes can be drilled for removing fuel.

In addition, and to make it easier to identify parts and materials suitable for recycling, we use internationally-approved parts and material coding standards.

Best practice dismantling treatment is guaranteed through the International Dismantling Information System, which includes detailed dismantling advice on 48 Toyota and 14 Lexus models.

Making a Material Difference

As cars often contain plastics that are hard to recycle, Toyota has developed a special recyclable plastic called Toyota Super Olefin Polymer, or TSOP, that can be used to make car bumpers and other parts which can then be recycled many times over. Most of our cars are now manufactured with an improved TSOP.