Circular economy

Toyota invests in circular factories in Europe to recover materials from end-of-life vehicles

Since the summer of 2025, Toyota has been dismantling end-of-life vehicles at its Burnaston plant in Derbyshire to reuse, recycle and repurpose parts and materials. This year, Toyota Motor Europe will open its second circular factory in Wałbrzych, Poland, supporting the automaker's strategy for achieving global carbon neutrality.

James McLoughlin
James McLoughlin Assistant Editor
Published
3 min
Toyota Circular Factory
Toyota will open its second circular factory in Europe in 2026

Toyota's circular factory initiative is designed to go beyond optimising the recovery of parts and materials from end‑of‑life vehicles, evaluating how circular approaches can support more efficient vehicle design, manufacturing and life cycle management in the future.

Toyota's circular factory in Burnaston

Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK (TMUK) opened its first circular factory in the summer of 2025 at its Burnaston plant in Derbyshire.

Toyota Circular Factory
Toyota's circular factory initiative is key to its wider circular economy strategy to achieve carbon neutrality

At the facility, aluminium recovered from end-of-life vehicles is processed and prepared for re‑use.

Once this is done, the aluminium is sent to TMUK's Deeside plant in North Wales, where it can be incorporated into engine component production.

The hybrid power units manufactured with the re-used aluminium then return to Burnaston to be installed in Toyota Corolla vehicles.

On March 19, 2026, the first Toyota vehicle to feature aluminium re-used through the company's circular factory programme rolled off the production line.

How it works

At Toyota's Burnaston circular factory, the process begins by dismantling vehicles – including models beyond its own Toyota and Lexus brands. Vehicles are dismantled using Toyota Production System methodologies that have been optimised for circularity efficiency.

First, airbags are deployed in a controlled setting to ensure the safety of those handling the vehicles and all fluids and gases are then carefully removed using compliant, monitored procedures.

Next, trained technicians dismantle the vehicle before recovered materials are sorted and classified carefully for efficient downstream processing. Toyota is conducting research into how different materials can be reintroduced to the manufacturing value chain, with this process providing information on how materials behave, how durable they are, and how easy they are to access in the dismantling and recovery process.

Toyota hopes that over time this process will help inform the design of vehicles that are easier to repair, dismantle and manage at the end of their life cycle. The company believes that by creating a feedback loop into its product design processes, it will be better positioned to establish systems that allow for resource utilisation to be maximised.

"In the first year of its launch, Toyota Circular Factory Burnaston is already delivering excellent results and giving us valuable insights, not just in how we handle vehicle end-of-life processes, but also how we can build circularity into the planning and design of future vehicles," commented Umit Sengezer, head of Toyota Circular Factory at Toyota Motor Europe. "This will enable us to secure even stronger rewards, helping us maximise the potential of the materials, resources and parts we use."

When the factory first opened, Toyota shared that it anticipated recycling around 10,000 vehicles each year at the facility. This, it estimated, would give new life to 120,000 parts, as well as recovering around 300 tonnes of high-purity plastic and 8,200 tonnes of steel.

In addition to end-of-life vehicle dismantling, vehicles are also refurbished at the site in an effort to extend their lifecycle, with each vehicle assessed, graded and validated to Toyota standards.

Toyota has outlined the main benefits of the circular factory initiative as: reduced dependence on and use of virgin materials; design of vehicles for easier dismantling, re-use and repair; extending vehicle lifecycles through safe and standardised refurbishment techniques; efficient recovery of materials at vehicle end-of-life; and returning recovered materials back into manufacturing processes.

"Ultimately, the ambition is to progressively establish a circular economy model where resources flow through multiple lifecycles, reducing environmental impact, improving material security and supporting Toyota’s long-term environmental commitment," shared Leon van der Merwe, vice president of circular economy at Toyota Motor Europe.

New circular factory to be established in Poland

Toyota circular factory alloy wheels
Alloy wheels are amongst the components that can be remanufactured, repurposed or recycled at Toyota's circular factories

Using the first circular factory in Burnaston as the benchmark for the development of its circular economy operations in Europe, Toyota announced in February 2026 that it has invested in a second European circular factory. This factory, based at Toyota's Wałbrzych plant in Poland, is expected to open later this year.

“We selected Poland due to the strong market potential to source end-of-life vehicles, recycling upstream and downstream, and the presence of our established manufacturing infrastructure," explained van der Merwe. "In the coming years we plan to introduce similar investments in other European markets.”

The new circular factory in Wałbrzych is anticipated to process an annual total of 20,000 end-of-live vehicles once it opens – double the amount currently processed at the UK site. Components such as batteries and wheels will be evaluated for their potential to be remanufactured, repurposed or recycled, while materials including copper, steel, aluminium and plastics are to be recovered for use in the production of new vehicles.

The need for circularity in today's automotive supply chain

This circular approach supports Toyota's sustainability ambitions, as set out in the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050. One such goal outlined in the challenge is the building of a recycling-based society and systems. These targets were set by Toyota in 2015 to provide a framework for achieving its broader goal of reaching carbon neutrality in all products and operations in Europe by 2040.

The company has acknowledged the increased importance of circularity in Europe as new regulations require firms take greater accountability for ensuring more efficient recycling and materials recovery when it comes to end-of-life vehicle disposal.

The EU End-of-Life Vehicle Directive, which entered into force in 2000, is set to be replaced by the EU End-of-Life Vehicle Regulation (ELVR). Proposed by the European Commission in 2023 and yet to be formally adopted as EU law, the ELVR seeks to introduce stricter rules around design-for-recycling and set minimum requirements of recycled content in new vehicles in an attempt to tighten and modernise waste regulation.

With new regulation in Europe like the ELVR likely to mandate improvements to circularity processes within the automotive supply chain, Toyota has seen this as an opportunity to create new industrial models that can deliver greater materials traceability and anticipate future requirements, rather than simply meeting them.

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