New Technology Recycles Copper from Car Cables

With only 40 years' worth of mineable copper remaining world-wide, auto makers - especially those that build popular hybrids that consume large amounts of copper in their wiring harnesses - are combating resource depletion with new recycling technologies. Toyota, for example, developed the first mechanical sorting process that can prevent contamination from minute impurities. The system can produce 99.96% pure copper, which Toyota is now feeding back into the wiring harness manufacturing line. Plans are to turn out 1,000 tons of the recycled copper annually by 2016.

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