Cross life cycle opportunities for increasing the post-consumer recycled content of aluminum automotive body sheet in the United States

Increasing the post-consumer recycled content (PCRC) of aluminum automotive body sheet (ABS) is a promising pathway to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ABS production. However, progress is constrained by the limited end-of-life vehicle (ELV) ABS scrap available and the compositional mismatches between contaminated scrap streams and alloy specifications. This study identifies design-for-recycling strategies that sheet mills, automotive OEMs, and recyclers can implement and quantifies their effects using a composition-specific dynamic material flow analysis to model sheet demand and scrap availability coupled with a linear optimization framework that determines annual PCRC potential under product-demand, scrap-supply, and alloy-composition constraints. A supply-chain emissions model links PCRC gains to GHG reductions. By 2050, ELV-derived ABS scrap could supply 33% of ingot demand, yet PCRC remains negligible under business-as-usual due to compositional incompatibilities. Effective strategies to increase the PCRC include: (1) sheet mills developing high-residual-content (HRC) “recycle-friendly” alloys; (2) OEMs shifting 5xxx-series component designs to 6xxx alloys; and (3) recyclers either extracting sheet-rich sub-assemblies before shredding or adopting advanced sorting technologies to separate shredded ELV aluminum scrap by alloy series. However, substantial increases above a PCRC of 15% occur only when multiple stakeholders act to implement synergistic strategies. The concurrent pursuit of ELV scrap sortation by alloy series and deployment of HRC alloys is especially impactful. Under such coordinated action, a PCRC level of up to 28% by 2050—and a total scrap content (including production scrap) of 76%—is achievable, potentially reducing annual supply-chain emissions from ABS component production by up to 42%.