Ford's Bumper Take-Back and Recycling Program
Ford started its bumper take-back program in the United States in 1993 as a pilot project to recycle plastic bumper material into tail light housings. This established program now recycles plastic bumper material to make new bumpers. Together with a plastics recycler in Michigan, Ford collects bumpers and other plastics from a network of 400 dismantlers across the country. The plastics recycler currently processes 6 million to 8 million pounds of material per and sells it to Ford which uses 1.5 million pounds per year, and to other manufacturers.


Saturn's Bumper Take-Back and Recycling Program
Saturn began its bumper-recycling program with plant scrap, recycling painted bumper scrap into wheel liners by regrinding it and adding it to virgin resin during the part formation process. In February 1993, Saturn started a pilot project for taking back from Saturn retailers those bumpers removed during body repairs. Then in December 1994, Saturn began a full-scale program for collecting bumpers from all 340 Saturn retailers. New bumpers are exchanged for damaged bumpers through the supply chain, from Saturn plant to Saturn retailer to body shop. The damaged bumpers are processed through a plastics recycler in Michigan. Unfortunately, however, the recycling loop is not complete, for Saturn does not currently use the recycled plastic resin from this company to manufacture new bumpers.

Although they are voluntary take-back initiatives, these projects have little impact on the resource-consumption and waste-management issues created by current vehicle-recycling practices in the United States because bumpers are only a very small part of the ASR problem. Because vehicle manufacturers are not responsible for the disposal of the entire vehicle, feedback loops that would influence the whole vehicle design are limited.