Volkswagen, Salzgitter Establish Auto Recycling Venture

Volskwagen AG and Salzgitter, a German-based steel and technology company, announced plans to build a facility that will shred and recycle automobiles.

The two companies expect to spend around $25 million on the project, which the companies hope to have operational by the end of this year.

The joint venture will be called CAR Cycling, and it will be owned equally by the two companies.

The pilot plant will use a technology, developed by SiCon, a German engineering firm, to process for recycling non-metallics generated in the shredding process.

According to the two companies the process will allow the plant to recycle close to 95 percent of the old automobiles.

The facility will have the capacity to process about 70,000 tons of material.

The two companies also are searching for other partners on additional projects throughout Europe.

Bernd Pischetsrieder, Volkswagen’s chairman, noted, "Volkswagen underlines its confession with this new utilization technology. Thus, the cycle concludes itself from environmental fair production, clean enterprise and large utilization."