MUNICH: The BMW Group is relocating its Recycling and Dismantling Centre (RDC) from Unterschleißheim to the company’s Wackersdorf site, with a significant expansion.
At the new location in Bavaria, Germany, a state-of-the-art competence centre for circularity is being built, advancing vehicle dismantling and recycling expertise.
Commissioning is scheduled for early 2029.
“The circular economy is a key element of the BMW Group’s corporate strategy,” says BMW Group vice-president (Circular Economy, Spare Parts Supply High Voltage Battery and Electric Powertrain) Jörg Lederbauer.
“Our new competence centre in Wackersdorf will be a core component of our circular value chain and will help make the mobility of the future more resource efficient. We want to find the best way to keep materials in the cycle, ensuring that resources retain their value for further use in the long term."
"This will also reduce our dependence on primary raw materials. At the same time, the use of high-quality secondary materials will continue to significantly lower our vehicles’ carbon footprint.”
For more than 30 years, at its current location in Unterschleißheim, near Munich, the BMW Group RDC has developed methods aimed at achieving significant advances in the recycling of parts and the recovery of materials, and has tested them in practice.
The recycling industry’s global network also benefits from the work of the RDC.
Around 3,000 businesses in 32 countries rely on a shared recycling database for information on how recyclable components can be disassembled cost-effectively and valuable materials efficiently recovered.
At the future site, process, material and technology development will be even more closely integrated with vehicle recycling operations.
The new scope of activities at the Competence Centre Circularity includes the recycling of hydrogen vehicles, automation of dismantling processes and development of expertise in innovative shredding and sorting technologies.
The BMW Group sees Wackersdorf as the ideal new location for the Competence Centre Circularity, with BMW Group Plant Wackersdorf having embodied flexibility for decades.
Housing cockpit production, the Rolls-Royce door and flap production centre, parts supply for overseas plants and the battery testing centre, the site has wide-ranging expertise and is firmly established within the BMW Group network.
“In recent years, the company has set a decisive course for the future of the Wackersdorf location. Throughout this process, the entire plant team has consistently demonstrated flexibility. Building the competence centre for circularity here provides our site with a broader foundation. In this way, we are tapping into an attractive, future-oriented area of activity,” says BMW Group Plant Wackersdorf head Stefan Betz.
