𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐊𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐊𝐓 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

Demonstrating "The Material Effect" in action, #Covestro announced its participation in the KOLLEKT research project — a publicly funded, interdisciplinary consortium dedicated to developing recyclable product concepts for automotive lighting, mechatronic and electronic components. The three-year project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) under the CircularGlowUp funding framework and supervised by the Karlsruhe Project Management Agency (PTKA), addresses one of the #automotive industry's most pressing challenges: how to keep materials in use longer, reduce resource consumption, and build genuinely circular value chains.

#KOLLEKT brings together FORVIA HELLA as coordinator alongside partners BMW, Covestro, Geba, Fraunhofer IEM, Fraunhofer UMSICHT, the University of Paderborn, Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), and SW Maschinenservice. The project runs from June 2026 to May 2029, with a total BMFTR funding volume of €4.371 million including project lump sums.

From Headlamp to Tomorrow's Resource

The automotive industry faces growing pressure from resource scarcity, supply security concerns, and tightening regulatory requirements — most notably the EU End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) Regulation. Technological hurdles, cost pressure, and insufficient product recyclability have so far prevented efficient plastics cycles from becoming established at scale. KOLLEKT directly addresses this gap by placing "Design for Circularity" at its core — product design optimized for recyclability from the very beginning, complemented by four R-strategies: Repair, Re-Use, Remanufacture, and Recycle. KOLLEKT researches how future lighting components can be made repairable, reusable, and #recyclable — and what production and logistics processes this requires.

Covestro's Role: Materials That Enable Circularity

As a key materials partner in KOLLEKT, Covestro contributes its deep expertise in high-performance polymers and sustainable material solutions — working across the full circular value chain, from supporting circular product design and material concepts through to the evaluation of recycling pathways for polycarbonate. Covestro's #Makrolon®, #Bayblend® and #Apec® materials are among the most widely used plastics in automotive lighting applications, and bringing these materials back into high-quality use cycles is central to the project's ambition. Covestro's involvement ensures that material properties, recyclate quality, and end-of-life behavior are fully considered from the design stage onward — a prerequisite for true circularity, and a direct expression of Covestro's vision of a fully #circulareconomy.

source : Covestro