Honda opens end-of-life parts and equipment recycling center
Honda has begun operations of its new Resource Circularity Center, a center designed to give new life to vehicle service parts, retired equipment, and office electronics that it says would otherwise end up in landfills.
Located near the Marysville and East Liberty Auto Plants in Ohio, the center focuses on recycling and repurposing indirect goods — tools, equipment, and other items used in operations, including those that support vehicle production, such as torque wrenches and industrial robots, to office chairs and vehicle service replacement parts like aluminum wheels.
“A circular economy isn’t just about recycling; it’s about how Honda can meet as many human needs as possible from a given resource, for as long as we can, until it can no longer serve a viable purpose,” said Matt Daniel, American Honda Motor Co. procurement sustainability director, in a press release. “The Honda Resource Circularity Center reimagines the current linear model of buying, producing and disposing into a circular value model that recaptures value and reduces waste at every turn.”
Honda plans to reuse the indirect goods at its facilities, sell them, donate them, or disassemble them for the recovery of raw materials, according to the release. End-of-life vehicle service parts are also disassembled and recycled into Honda’s raw material stream to support a closed-loop system.
Building on those efforts, Honda plans to explore additional opportunities across the business, such as donating non-technical goods to nonprofits or repurposing scrap leather from car seats into luggage tags.
“Honda is transitioning to a recycling-oriented business model that maximizes the use of products and parts throughout their entire lifecycle, then recycles them with high efficiency,” the release states. “A key part of this approach is horizontal recycling, which focuses on recovering valuable materials from End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) and repurposing them into new products.”
To accomplish this, Honda is developing a new supply chain called a “circular value chain” to connect everything from material suppliers to recycling partners.
“The integrated ecosystem not only reduces waste but also enhances resource efficiency across the entire value stream,” Honda said. “By reimagining how products are made and what happens to them after use, Honda is laying the foundation for future vehicles and technologies designed with the planet in mind.”
Audi announced a similar end-of-life recycling program earlier this year.
Through a partnership with TSR Resource, Audi’s program turns steel scrap from vehicles into high-quality post-consumer secondary material for further use in the automotive supply chain.
Audi began testing the MaterialLoop program in 2023. Through the program, Audi is already using high-quality recycled post-consumer secondary materials on the Audi Q4 e-tron windshields and the roof section of the Audi Q6 e-tron.
Images
Featured image: The Honda Resource Circularity Center focuses on recycling and repurposing indirect goods. (Provided by Honda)