Old cars – new purpose: Toyota Circular Factory to maximise recycling and recovery from end-of-life vehicles
- Toyota Circular Factory (TCF) is created to maximise the environmental benefit of carefully and systematically processing vehicles at the end of their life.
- In the first phase, TCF will be able to process 10k vehicles annually - giving new life to hundreds of thousands of parts and recovering significant quantities of raw material.
- In the second phase, TCF operations are anticipated to rollout across Europe and beyond, including with like-minded partner organisations.
- TCF will be the first operation of its kind within global Toyota.
Brussels, 17 March 2025 - Toyota Motor Europe (TME) has announced the establishment of Toyota Circular Factory to carefully and systematically process vehicles at the end of their life to maximise the environmental benefits of re-cycling, re-purposing and re-manufacturing.
The first operation, located at Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK (TMUK)’s Burnaston plant, will begin activities in the third quarter of this year, and aims to become the centre of excellence for future recycling operations across Europe and worldwide. This initiative will be implemented alongside TMUK Burnaston site’s principal activity of producing Toyota Corolla vehicles.
Toyota Circular Factory is the name given to TME’s overall recycling activities, and it is structuring its approach to end-of-life vehicle processing around three key areas: re-usable parts, commodity items that can be re-manufactured and materials that can be recycled.
Following a comprehensive validation process, re-usable parts will be reintroduced into the market through retailers or parts distributors. Commodity items such as batteries and wheels will be assessed for their potential to be re-manufactured, re-purposed, or recycled.
Finally, Toyota intends to recycle raw materials such as copper, aluminium, steel, and plastic. These recycled materials would then replace virgin materials as much as possible in the production of new parts for new vehicles.
We initially anticipate recycling around 10,000 vehicles a year in our UK facility, which will give new life to 120,000 parts, recover 300 tonnes of high purity plastic and 8,200 tonnes of steel - amongst other materials. As a next step for the Toyota Circular Factory concept, we plan to roll out similar operations across Europe. And we’re not stopping at our own facilities - we are eager to collaborate with other organisations who share our passion of circularity and commitment to carbon neutrality
With this initiative, Toyota aims to significantly reduce future environmental impact associated with the manufacturing of vehicles and sub-components. This effort not only aligns with company’s global and European sustainability objectives but also sets a new industry benchmark for responsible recycling and material reuse.
The mission of the Toyota Circular Factory is to systematically recycle end-of-life vehicles, maximising the recovery of recyclable materials and reusable components and setting a new standard for circular operations.
Toyota Motor Europe is committed to being fully carbon neutral by 2040, and to achieve carbon neutrality in all its owned facilities 2030. By 2035, Toyota plans to have 100% CO2 reduction across its European product line-up.
Toyota Motor Europe NV/SA (TME) oversees the wholesale sales and marketing of Toyota, GR (Gazoo Racing) and Lexus vehicles and parts and accessories, as well as Toyota’s European manufacturing and engineering operations. Toyota directly employs over 25,000 people and has invested over EUR 11 billion in Europe since 1990. Its eight European manufacturing plants are located in Portugal, the UK, France, Poland, Czech Republic and Turkey. Today, there are approximately 16.5 million Toyota, GR and Lexus vehicles on European roads, whose drivers are supported by a network of 28 National Marketing and Sales Companies and around 2,800 retail sales outlets in 53 countries (EU, UK, EFTA countries + Russia, Israel, Turkey and other Eastern European countries). In 2022, TME sold 1,080,975 vehicles in Europe for a 6.4% market share. For more information, visit Facts & Figures (toyota.eu) and www.toyota-europe.com.
Toyota believes that when people are free to move, anything is possible. In the pursuit of "Mobility for All", Toyota aims to create safer, more connected, inclusive and sustainable mobility to achieve its mission of producing “Happiness for All”. In Europe, TME launched the KINTO mobility brand which offers a range of mobility services in 14 countries, and is growing its business-to-business sales of zero-emission fuel cell products and engineering support. Contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Toyota is working to achieve carbon neutrality in its entire business across Europe. A historic leader in CO2 reduction in Europe, TME aims to achieve 100% CO2 reduction in all new vehicles in Western Europe by 2035 and will continue to offer a full range of electrified powertrains to customers across the region with its hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery and fuel cell electric vehicles.