‘On the frontline’ of car recycling

There is work to be done for Iran’s 130 end-of-life vehicle recycling centres. Some 2 million car wrecks scattered across the country waiting to be scrapped, estimates major Iranian car recycler Bonyan Group, based in the capital Tehran. Boosted by the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran, Bonyan is eyeing opportunities to upgrade the country’s car recycling industry. ‘We need modern technology; we need far better collection systems and better laws and regulations,’ declares the company’s managing director AmirSeifizadeh.

A big black-and-white picture showing armed soldiers in desert trenches decorates one of the walls of the Tehran-based office of Mostafa, president of the Bonyan Group of companies. The picture is a souvenir of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war in which Mostafa served as a volunteer. The war cost the lives of one million troops on both sides.

Mostafa survived the conflict. ‘I was on the frontline during the war; now I am on the frontline of car recycling,’ he proclaims.

The Bonyan Group specialises in end-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling. The company has five facilities: its main yard is located south of Tehran while the rest are in or near other major Iranian cities, including Tabriz to the north east and Kerman to the south. In addition, Bonyan operates a cable stripping facility, with two more to be opened over the next two years, as well as a plastics/PVC recycling plant.

Furthermore, it runs a reselling business named Taha Sanat which represents Italian recycling equipment manufacturers Iris-Mec and Guidetti in the Iranian marketplace. Largest and most active Iran is home to around 130 ELV recycling centres; in 2015, these facilities scrapped a combined 145 000 end-of-life vehicles.

A total of some 1.5 million car wrecks have been scrapped during the past decade – of which Bonyan alone has accounted for 6% or 80 000 cars, claims the company’s managing director Amir Seifizadeh. Most of Bonyan’s scrap and recycling activities take place at the company’s headquarters outside of Tehran.

The facility forms part of Tehran’s Car Recycling Centre, a cluster of ELV…

This article has been published in magazine Recycling International issue November 2016