ProTIER: Introduction of Circular Economy protocols in an automotive company TIER1.

AURIA SOLUTIONS VITORIA, the project’s leading company, is dedicated to manufacturing flooring and acoustic and thermal insulation for the automotive industry at its plant in Jundiz (Vitoria-Gasteiz). AURIA’s two main products are the floors (front and rear) and the side panels, both made of plastic mixtures.

In the current manufacturing process of these products, large-scale cuttings are generated that, in the absence of adequate recycling processes for these materials formed by plastic mixtures, end up in the landfill, in quantities that in situations of normal production reach 3,000 tons. /year.

Objectives.

ProTIER aims to find innovative solutions to optimize the material resources of the industry and avoid, as far as possible, the deposit of these materials in the landfill.

Lines of action of the project.

ProTIER, started last February and is scheduled to end in December 2020, will consist of several lines of action:

  • Optimization of the separation of materials for their final use in the plant itself, based on the grinding and separation process currently under development in AURIA, in order to be reused by the current suppliers themselves. The planned objective is thus to recover at least 1,000 tons / year of materials that would be incorporated into the new floors and panels produced by AURIA.
  • Treatment to obtain different formats of the material that cannot be reintroduced in the process and search for possible applications in other sectors.
  • Creation of an Action Protocol in Circular Economy in plant.

 

Execution and financing.

This project is carried out by Auria in collaboration with the GAIKER Technology Center, a member of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance, BRTA, and ZICLA.

The project has been supported by the Ihobe Aid Program to carry out innovative ecodesign and circular economy projects in the Basque industry, and it has a grant of 30,000 € financed by FEDER funds.