Post-consumer packaging waste is shredded into recycled PET flakes and then compounded into black granulate for engineering applications
(Image courtesy of BASF)
BASF Ultradur RC1 joins the company’s engineering plastics portfolio as a family of glass fibre-reinforced PBT/PET compounds containing up to 30 percent post-consumer recycled PET (PCR-PET). Structural automotive parts such as brackets, housings and connectors are the target. The announcement comes as European vehicle makers face recycled plastic requirements under the EU’s revised End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation. The PCR-PET itself comes from packaging waste outside established bottle-to-bottle recycling streams.
Recycled PET and the EU’s new vehicle plastics targets
BASF says it developed RC1 to track conventional grades based on virgin raw materials as closely as possible, so customers can raise the recycled content of a component and still get the strength, stiffness and dimensional stability that engineering applications require. Variants with different reinforcement levels cover a range of uses. The RC1 designation marks post-consumer recycled material, and because the packaging waste behind it is often used for energy recovery, BASF says the grades open an additional recycling stream.
Patrick Wilke, Segment Manager Transportation, Engineering Plastics at BASF, puts the case in terms of industry pressure. The automotive sector, he says, is being pushed to use more recycled material while still meeting demanding technical requirements, and RC1 is meant to offer a significant share of recycled content at the performance those applications need.
Structural parts and Scope 3.1 emissions
On the applications side, BASF points to brackets, housings, structural parts, connectors and other engineering components, where mechanical performance and sustainability goals have to be met together. The company also ties RC1 to emissions reporting, saying the grades can contribute to lower Scope 3.1 emissions, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol category covering upstream emissions from purchased goods and services, and can support OEMs and suppliers with evolving recycled content rules for plastic components.
Recycled PET and the EU’s new vehicle plastics targets
On the regulatory side, the European Parliament adopted the revised End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation in June 2026, and the Council has since completed adoption. Each new vehicle type must meet minimum recycled plastic content targets of 15 percent within six years of entry into force, rising to 25 percent within ten.
Within those targets, the Regulation requires at least 20 percent of the recycled plastic to come from end-of-life vehicles or used parts, a closed-loop requirement that runs separately from the packaging-derived PCR-PET used in RC1. The text also lets the Commission grant temporary derogations from the targets where recycled plastic is scarce or priced excessively.
Customers can see BASF Ultradur RC1 at Fakuma 2026 in Friedrichshafen, running October 12 to 16, where application examples will show its potential in automotive components.
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