Where cars go to die — and come back to life: Behind BMW’s recycling curtain

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Where cars go to die — and come back to life: Behind BMW’s recycling curtain

Published: 24 Sep. 2025, 06:00 Updated: 24 Sep. 2025, 18:36

SARAH CHEA
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

A giant excavator crushes a BMW sedan to extract wiring harnesses, which contain recyclable copper, at the company's Recycling and Dismantling Center on the outskirts of Munich. [BMW KOREA]

MUNICH — Like a claw machine gone rogue, a giant excavator's arm plunges into a black sedan, tearing through the chassis with surgical precision. Within seconds, it coils the wiring harnesses like spaghetti, yanking them out in tangled loops — one metallic nerve at a time.

From a single dismantled vehicle, up to 35 kilograms (77 pounds) of copper can be extracted, by far the most valuable recyclable material recovered at BMW’s Recycling and Dismantling Center on the outskirts of Munich, which costs as much as 8,000 euros ($9,400) per ton.

Eventually, this copper is reborn inside a brand-new BMW, closing the loop in the company’s circular economy. This is how the automaker gives a second life to thousands of retired vehicles each year.

“Parts in good condition are sent to BMW dealers across the globe, while the rest are recycled through partner facilities, and eventually find their way back into new BMWs,” said Ralf Hattler, senior vice president of customer support at BMW, during a press tour of the center on Sept. 6.

“Each vehicle is 85 percent recyclable, with an additional 10 percent suitable for reuse,” he added.

An engineer disassembles a BMW at the company's Recycling and Dismantling Center on the outskirts of Munich. [BMW KOREA]

Opened in 1994, the facility can process up to 10,000 cars a year. So far, in 2025, it has dismantled and recycled around 6,000 cars. In fact, nearly one-third of the components used in BMW’s recently unveiled iX3 come from this very center.

The recycling process begins with the removal of safety devices such as airbags and the drainage of all fluids. In the basement level of the center, technicians work beneath suspended vehicles, extracting every drop of liquid using funnels and hoses.

“Even the fluids we extract can be reused,” said Steffen Aumann, head of recycling at the center during the tour. “Brake fluid, for example, can be separated into water and particulates, then refined into new, usable fluid.”

Fluids are extracted from a BMW for recycling at BMW’s Recycling and Dismantling Center on the outskirts of Munich. [BMW KOREA]

After fluid extraction, the cars are transferred to a separate zone for parts dismantling. Reusable components such as headlights and bonnets are removed, inspected and redistributed to BMW dealerships worldwide. What remains is stripped down even further. Once fully dismantled, the vehicle is moved to an isolated storage area where the wiring harnesses are carefully extracted.

But the most critical — and perhaps valuable — of the four-hour course comes from recycling the high-voltage battery, where raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, black mass, manganese, graphite and separators can be extracted. Batteries are the most expensive parts of an EV, accounting for more than 40 percent of its total value.

“We collaborate with Korea’s SK Tes to supply spent batteries, where they extract the essential raw materials, which are then reused in the batteries of new BMW vehicles,” Aumann said.

Over the past three decades, the recycling center has processed 120,000 vehicles. The total length of wiring harnesses extracted during this time is said to be enough to circle the Earth five times.

A car is crushed for recycling at BMW’s Recycling and Dismantling Center on the outskirts of Munich [BMW KOREA]

BMW has made its accumulated expertise available through the International Dismantling Information System, offering free access to recycling companies across the globe. Currently, over 3,000 organizations across 41 countries utilize this shared database to learn efficient methods for parts recycling and valuable material recovery.

The German brand also contributes its specialized knowledge and end-of-life vehicles to the Car2Car research project, financially aided by the German government, aiming to enhance recycling efficiency and maximize material recovery.

BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]