Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is trialling an innovative recycling process, which converts plastic waste into a premium-grade material that could feature on future vehicles.

Working with chemical company BASF, JLR is part of a pilot project called ChemCycling that ‘upcycles’ domestic waste plastic — otherwise destined for landfill or incinerators — into a new high-quality material.

A thermochemical process transforms the waste plastic into pyrolysis oil. This is then fed into BASF’s production chain as a replacement for fossil resources, ultimately producing a material that replicates the high quality and performance of ‘virgin’ plastics.

Importantly, it can be tempered and coloured, making it suitable for the next-generation dashboards and exterior surfaces of JLR models.

JLR (www.media.jaguarlandrover.com) and BASF are currently testing the pilot-phase material in a Jaguar I-PACE prototype front-end carrier over-moulding to verify that it meets the stringent safety requirements.

JLR senior sustainability manager Chris Brown said: “Plastics are vital to car manufacturing and have proven benefits during their use phase, but plastic waste remains a major global challenge.

“At JLR, we are increasing the recycled content in our products, removing single-use plastics across our operations and reducing excess waste across the product life-cycle.”

This is the latest example of JLR’s commitment to addressing the challenge of waste plastic.

The company has already met its 2020 target for Zero Waste to Landfill for UK operations.

This includes the removal of 1.3 million m² – equal to 187 football pitches – of plastic from its manufacturing operations.