Latest news from Loughborough University
| 17 July 2006 | PR 06/86 |
Loughborough University helps manufacturers on the road to recyclable cars
Researchers at Loughborough University are helping to shape – and recycle - the cars of the future.
More than two million unwanted, ‘End-of-Life’ Vehicles (ELVs) are scrapped in the UK each year, calling for an urgent solution to the problem of discarded car materials and components.
Loughborough University is working with car manufacturers and others to meet new European targets that call for 95 per cent of vehicle components to be recycled by 2015.
The new regulations place the responsibility for ELVs on manufacturers. This means car-makers must design and produce recyclable cars, as well as disposing of them when they are no longer needed.
Experts at Loughborough University’s Centre for Sustainable Manufacturing and Re-Use/Recycling Technologies (SMART) have been looking at the cost and design implications of recyclable cars.
Dr Shahin Rahimifard, Centre Director of SMART, said: “We have to balance the three key issues: to improve the quality of the recycled materials from ELVs, to do this in an environmentally sound way, and to make these activities financially viable.
“The software tools we have created here at Loughborough will hopefully not only help the vehicle recovery industry to meet the EU targets but also allow them to expand their operations and maximise their potential financial benefits.”
ENDS
For further information, contact:
- Dr Shahin Rahimifard, Centre Director of Loughborough University’s
Centre for Sustainable Manufacturing and Re-Use/ Recycling Technologies
(SMART), T: 01509 227657, E: S.Rahimifard@lboro.ac.uk
- Jo Marlow, Public Relations Officer, Loughborough University,
T: 01509 228697, E: J.L.Smyth@lboro.ac.uk
Notes to editors
Loughborough has an established reputation for excellence in teaching
and research, strong links with industry, and unrivalled sporting achievement.
Assessments of teaching quality by the Quality Assurance Agency place
it in the top flight of UK universities; the National Student Survey ranked
Loughborough equal first among full-time students; and industry highlights
the University in its top five for graduate recruitment. Around 40% of
Loughborough’s income is for research, and 60% for teaching. The
University has been awarded five Queen's Anniversary Prizes: for its collaboration
with aerospace and automotive companies such as BAE Systems, Ford and
Rolls Royce; for its work in developing countries; for pioneering research
in optical engineering; for its world-leading role in sports research,
education and development; and for its outstanding work in evaluating
and helping to develop social policy-related programmes.
In 2006 Loughborough celebrates the 40th anniversary of its University
Charter, awarded on 19 April 1966 in recognition of the excellence achieved
by Loughborough College of Advanced Technology and its predecessor Colleges.
Loughborough University of Technology was renamed Loughborough University
in 1996.