The Toyota brand has launched efforts to build a full-scale resource circulation system for a sustainable future. This fall, a dedicated recycling facility named the Toyota Circular Factory will open at the Burnaston Plant in the United Kingdom. The facility will specialize in recycling scrapped vehicles, including automobile parts and batteries. The initiative is expected to mark the starting point of Toyota’s global circular economy strategy.
This project goes beyond conventional waste disposal. The facility, capable of dismantling and recycling around 10,000 vehicles annually, will establish an integrated system that verifies reusable parts, raw material recovery, remanufacturing, and resale. Toyota stated that the plant will operate alongside the existing Corolla production line and serve as the core of a circular economy model to expand across Europe and globally.
Used parts to be resold aexpandtion
Raw material recovery to be accelerated
The Circular Factory’s operations are summarized in three main recycling processes. First, it verifies and resells reusable parts from dismantled vehicles. Second, it assesses whether key components like batteries and wheels can be remanufactured or reused. Third, it recovers raw materials such as copper, aluminum, steel, and plastic for reintegration into manufacturing. All of these stages undergo strict quality assurance procedures.
Leon van der Merwe, Vice President of Toyota Europe’s Circular Economy Division, stated that in the initial stage, the facility is expected to reuse about 120,000 parts from 10,000 scrapped vehicles annually and recover 300 tons of high-purity plastic and 8,200 tons of steel. Toyota believes expanding this model across Europe will reduce the need for new raw materials and significantly lower carbon emissions in manufacturing.
Accelerating global expansion
Serious steps toward carbon neutrality
Toyota’s efforts go beyond building a closed-loop system within its plants. The key goal is to expand the recycling ecosystem by collaborating with companies and institutions that share the values of a circular economy and carbon neutrality. The Burnaston plant is expected to serve as Toyota’s global Center of Excellence for recycling and become a model for similar facilities across Europe.
Toyota also reaffirmed its corporate goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040, with the Circular Factory as a practical foundation for that vision. Transitioning from the current production-focused structure to a manufacturing process based on resource circulation is a task for Toyota and a shared challenge for the entire automotive industry. Improvingertrains is not enough under increasingly strict environmental regulations.
A strategic move
A beginning aimed at the end
Toyota’s construction of the Circular Factory can be seen as a strategic turning point to address the automotive industry’s multiple challenges—environmental regulations, resource depletion, and carbon neutrality. Beyond merely promoting sustainability, Toyota has presented a practical model that can be implemented in the manufacturing process and supply chain. However, concerns remain about how thoroughly the reused parts will be inspected. Some consumers worry that purchasing a new car could feel like buying something secondhand.
With this announcement, Toyota has essentially declared the beginning of an end. A finished car will no longer conclude its life as scrap but will reenter the circular structure as material for the next car—a vision of the automotive industry’s future. It will be essential to monitor how quickly this change from Burnaston becomes a global standard and whether any unforeseen side effects arise after implementation.
