Toyota builds large recycling plant in Poland
The new facility will cover an area of 25,000 square metres. It is designed to process around 20,000 end-of-life vehicles per year. The plant will focus on recovering reusable components and valuable raw materials, with a particular emphasis on batteries and other electrified vehicle parts.
“Items such as batteries and wheels will be evaluated for their potential to be remanufactured, repurposed or recycled,” Toyota states. “The aim is to maximise environmental benefits through precise and systematic processing of vehicles at the end of their life cycle.”
The company will inspect and remove components from scrapped vehicles and channel suitable parts back into use. Where refurbishment is not feasible, Toyota will recycle the materials to recover copper, steel, aluminium and plastics. According to the carmaker, these secondary raw materials will be used ‘in the production of new vehicles,’ strengthening closed-loop material cycles.
The site marks Toyota’s second circular economy plant in Europe, following the facility due to open in Burnaston, UK, in 2025. The new plant will be located at Toyota’s existing manufacturing site in Wałbrzych, Poland, where the company already produces key components for hybrid and conventional powertrains.
“We selected Poland due to the strong market potential to source End-Of-Life vehicles, recycling upstream & downstream and the presence of our established manufacturing infrastructure,” said Leon van der Merwe, Vice President of Circular Economy at Toyota Motor Europe. “In the coming years we plan to introduce similar investments in other European markets.”
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