The UK’s national standards body the British Standards Institute (BSI) has set up a cross-industry working party to look at creating a standard for recycled parts.

Having a respected programme that accredits both the dismantler of the part and the part itself would create a huge opportunity for fleets to reduce maintenance and repair bill – especially as they extend their replacement cycles to four and five years.

Among the representatives on the working party are Thatcham, ACFO and salvage firm Bluecycle.

“Grading which parts can and can’t be used will be key,” said Piers Wilson, Bluecycle head of marmet development.

“In America, for example, you can re-use airbags if they haven’t deployed; in the UK you can’t.”

At the start of the year, BSI conducted research to determine the need for standards to support the automotive aftermarket’s recycling, refurbishing/remanufacturing and re-use (R3) activities.

That culminated in a recent meeting of working party members, where BSI revealed that a standard would increase confidence in a market which is currently completely unregulated.

Building on the success of the Kitemark scheme for PAS 125 – the vehicle body repair standard – stakeholders believe a similar certification scheme would be beneficial.

A white paper has been produced by BSI, which concludes that a scheme is developed in the UK by key experts in the next six to nine months.

It is now in the process of gathering feedback on this report and if that is positive, BSI says it will develop a proposal outlining the needs, benefits, process and costs for the development of a PAS (Publicly Available Specification) by the end of this month.

At the same time, it will also consider the development of a Kitemark scheme related to R3 parts.

In addition, BSI is investigating funding for the development of these schemes, whether through joint sponsorship or a single funder.

Once funds are secured, the target would be to commence work during the autumn and it be completed within one year.