Una Visión Deontológica al Consumo y Reciclaje de Plásticos de la Industria Automovilística

This document aims to analyze the actions in the automotive industry and how they are linked to a professional ethical criterion by generating alternatives to the recycling of plastics to expand the mindset surrounding the recycling of plastics to improve their sustainability. It has compiled several publications referring to this industry, where the processes of vehicle manufacturing are detailed and how plastics are involved as solutions to the demands of consumers; as plastics are increasingly a preferred material option to design and develop complex consumer products, because they are moldable, lightweight and often considered highly recyclable materials. However, the recycling of the heterogeneous plastics used in these durable items is a challenge, and they present very different scenarios of how simple products, such as those for mass consumption, are recovered through simpler recycling initiatives. While there is technology to recycle plastics, its feasibility to do so from industrial or high-level applications for the consumer is limited by technological and economic constraints. Part of the challenges are the lack of a market for recycling and little infrastructure or profitable recovery processes. Also, there is a certain level of ignorance among manufacturers, consumers and operators of facilities that process the recycled material. For these reasons, it is likely that plastics that have reached the end of their useful life will end up in a cycle that does not suit environmental conservation.