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The End of Life Vehicles Directive is a Directive of the European Union addressing the end of life for automotive products. Every year, motor vehicles which have reached the end of their useful lives create between 8 and 9 million tonnes of waste in the European Union. In 1997, the European Commission adopted a Proposal for a Directive to tackle this problem.
The Directive on End-of Life Vehicle 2000/53/EC is the first EU waste directive with which the EU Commission has introduced the concept of Extended producer responsibility. The directive aims at reduction of waste arising from end-of-life vehicles.
The scope of the directive covers passenger cars classified as M1, light commercial vehicles classified as N1 (Definition for M1 and N1 in Regulation (EU) 2018/858 on the approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles and their trailers) and three-wheel motor vehicles as defined in Directive 92/61/EEC but excludes motor tricycles. In its frequently asked questions chapter, the ELV Guidance Document clarifies that motor caravans are in scope. Other vehicles, such as buses with more than 9 seats, motorcycles, commercial vehicles for the transport of goods with a maximum mass of more than 3.5 tons, trailers and other vehicles (e.g. trains, boats, and airplanes) are not covered by the ELV Directive.
The directive covers aspects along the life cycle of a vehicle as well as aspects related to treatment operations. As such it aims at:
With these targets set, the directive involves four major stakeholders, the producer, the recycling industry, the last holder and the authorities. Each has a responsibility within the realms of its unique possibility.
Waste has become an important part of EU policy. A framework of different regulations and directives exist to improve the management of waste in the EU and EFTA countries. EU policy can be separated into product related regulation such as the ELV Directive, WEEE Directive or Battery Directive to only name a few, general waste legislation such as the Waste Framework Directive or Waste Shipment Regulation, and treatment related legislation e.g. Landfill Directive, Waste Incineration Directive. The product related waste regulation is subordinate to the general waste regulation. An important principle of product specific regulation is that a given product can not fall under the jurisdiction of two separate directives at the same time. For instance, the lead acid battery in an end-of-life vehicle is covered under the ELV Directive, whereas a lead-acid battery being a replacement part during life cycle of the vehicle is subject to the Battery Directive.
To a large degree European Union environmental policy is based on directives, which are only minimum requirements and allow for adaptation to the regulatory requirements and systems of the European member states. Thus, the transposition may differ slightly country by country around Europe. Once a given member state has written its national law, it notifies the EU Commission (EC) of its regulation. If a member state violates the provisions in its national transcription, the EU Commission may ask the authorities in the given member state to make the necessary changes. It could even launch an infringement procedure against the country. The member states had to implement the directive in two steps. While in the first step only vehicle registered after 1 July 2002 fell under the extended producer responsibility, the second step as of 1 January 2007 covered all vehicles a given producer has ever introduced in the market place. With implementation reports at regular intervals, the EU Commission is supervising the correct implementation of the ELV Directive in the markets of the EU. In 2018 the EC published a study Assessment of ELV Directive with emphasis on the end of life vehicles of unknown whereabouts. [1] This study demonstrated that each year the whereabouts of 3 to 4 million ELVs across the EU is unknown and that the stipulations in the ELV directive are not sufficient to monitor the performance of individual member states. The study proposed and assessed a number of options to improve the legal provisions of the ELV directive.
According to definitions laid out in the Waste Framework Directive, it is primarily the customer's will which designates a given vehicle an end-of-life vehicle. However, in certain cases a vehicle is considered end-of-life simply due to the condition it is in. According to the Waste Shipment Regulation, such vehicle may not be exported outside of the European Union. Today however with material prices on the rise, end-of-life vehicles are considered a valuable resource for many different materials rather than waste. A vehicle irrespective of its age and its weight, is made out of approximately 75% of metals both ferrous and non-ferrous with the non-ferrous steadily increasing. The remaining 25% of the vehicle weight result from tires, fluids and other compound materials.
Europe's number of motor vehicles in use is among the largest in the world. In 2006, the total number of motor vehicles was 263M units of which passenger cars were largest group with 230M units. With an annual new registration of 18.7M units in total and 15.9M units of passenger cars the estimated annual volume of de-registrations is in the size of 13M to 14M units. However, official statistics only account for approximately 7M units as the official number of scrapped vehicles. The difference in number is usually traded as a commodity product i.e. as a used car to market such as East Europe and Africa.
The concept of prevention is based on four pillars.
These exemptions are catalogued in the Annex II to the ELV Directive. Since technology is subject to constant change, the Annex II is revised on a regular basis to account for new technical developments making certain materials in specific applications no longer necessary or allow for reduction of thresholds. As of today, 5 revisions have already been conducted with revision 6 under preparation.
Materials and components, which are either classified hazardous and thus shall not be released to the environment or should be dismantled to facilitate recycling, need to be coded for easier identification by treatment facilities. Well known ISO standards are to be applied for marking purposes.
With the advent of the ELV Directive, requirements for the physical treatment of vehicles and ubiquitous prerequisites for treatment facilities were introduced by drafting the Annex I to the ELV Directive as an enclosure. Annex I describes minimum technical requirements any treatment facility need to adhere to. These are standards on buildings, premises and installations primarily designed to avoid fluids to be released to the soil. The second part covers the physical treatment procedure. Annex I distinguishes between operations for de-pollution and treatment operations to promote recycling. The first one, obligates treatment facilities to drain the ELV from all fluids, to remove components which are marked as being hazardous e.g. components identified to contain mercury, and explosive components e.g. seatbelt tensioners or air bags. The second one mandates the removal of certain components e.g. catalytic converter, tires, glass as well as other metal parts containing copper, aluminium or magnesium and large plastic components if these materials are not segregated in the shredding process.
For the consumer the primary focus of the ELV Directive is the responsibility of any given producer to take back the vehicles it has introduced on the market. The obligation does not mandate the producer to physically do it on his own, but rather allows for networks the producer can set up with various treatment companies or by joining a collective system. The collection systems need to fulfill the criteria of adequate area coverage. Typically, this is interpreted as being a 50 km radius around the take-back facility. Indispensable is the general mandate to arrange take-back at no cost to the last owner of the ELV, however, two exemptions are possible. If the vehicles lacks essential components or contains waste, the facility which takes the vehicle back is allowed to charge the last holder.
Vehicle manufacturer have established suitable collection systems in all markets in the EU and EFTA countries. While some markets favour collective systems, other markets have decided to allow own marque schemes. The first is characterised by one company organising the collection network on behalf of its members, typically the producers. The later is organised by the producer directly through bi-lateral relationships and contracts. Collective systems often go hand in hand with a deposit the first owner of a vehicle provides as collateral to be paid out when the vehicle is returned to a certified treatment facility at the end of its useful life. The other alternative is a fund system which requires either first owner or producer to pay a certain amount of money to. Fund money is not committed to vehicle return, but either used to finance other recycling projects or is even sunk in government budgets without any environmental impact or benefit.
Vehicle recycling under such strict legal framework requires constant and palpable communication to stakeholders.
To measure the actual performance of the countries, targets were defined with the ELV Directive. The EU Member States and EFTA countries are obliged to ensure that economic operators (i.e. authorities, treatment operators and producers) as part of their shared responsibility meet certain minimum targets. [2]
The targets are twofold:
| As of 1 January 2006 | As of 1 January 2015 | |
|---|---|---|
| Reuse & Recycling | 80% | 85% |
| Reuse & Recovery | 85% | 95% |
The targets are calculated based on the average weight of a single vehicle per year. While recycling is primarily defined as material processing with the aim of using the material for the same or for a similar purpose, recovery is defined as incineration to generate energy. Thus, the difference between the two targets reuse and recycling and reuse and recovery is the share which is incinerated. Member states have to report their annual performance to the EU Commission. Statistics for the quota achieved country by country and year by year are available at the Eurostat website.
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive is a European Community Directive, numbered 2012/19/EU, concerned with waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Together with the RoHS Directive 2011/65/EU, it became European Law in February 2003. The WEEE Directive set collection, recycling and recovery targets for all types of electrical goods, with a minimum rate of 4 kilograms (9 lb) per head of population per annum recovered for recycling by 2009. The RoHS Directive set restrictions upon European manufacturers as to the material content of new electronic equipment placed on the market.
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC, short for Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, was adopted in February 2003 by the European Union.
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a strategy to add all of the estimated environmental costs associated with a product throughout the product life cycle to the market price of that product, contemporarily mainly applied in the field of waste management. Such societal costs are typically externalities to market mechanisms, with a common example being the impact of cars.
Waste hierarchy is a tool used in the evaluation of processes that protect the environment alongside resource and energy consumption from most favourable to least favourable actions. The hierarchy establishes preferred program priorities based on sustainability. To be sustainable, waste management cannot be solved only with technical end-of-pipe solutions and an integrated approach is necessary.
Electronic waste recycling, electronics recycling, or e-waste recycling is the disassembly and separation of components and raw materials of waste electronics; when referring to specific types of e-waste, the terms like computer recycling or mobile phone recycling may be used. Like other waste streams, reuse, donation, and repair are common sustainable ways to dispose of IT waste.
Type approval or certificate of conformity is granted to a product that meets a minimum set of regulatory, technical and safety requirements. Generally, type approval is required before a product is allowed to be sold in a particular country, so the requirements for a given product will vary around the world. Processes and certifications known as type approval in English are often called homologation, or some cognate expression, in other European languages.
Electronic waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. It is also commonly known as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) or end-of-life (EOL) electronics. Used electronics which are destined for refurbishment, reuse, resale, salvage recycling through material recovery, or disposal are also considered e-waste. Informal processing of e-waste in developing countries can lead to adverse human health effects and environmental pollution. The growing consumption of electronic goods due to the Digital Revolution and innovations in science and technology, such as bitcoin, has led to a global e-waste problem and hazard. The rapid exponential increase of e-waste is due to frequent new model releases and unnecessary purchases of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), short innovation cycles and low recycling rates, and a drop in the average life span of computers.
Active Disassembly (AD) is a developing technology which is associated with the term active disassembly using smart materials (ADSM).
Waste minimisation is a set of processes and practices intended to reduce the amount of waste produced. By reducing or eliminating the generation of harmful and persistent wastes, waste minimisation supports efforts to promote a more sustainable society. Waste minimisation involves redesigning products and processes and/or changing societal patterns of consumption and production.
The Landfill Directive, more formally Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999, is a European Union directive which regulates waste management of landfills in the European Union. It was to be implemented by EU Member States by 16 July 2001. Directive (EU) 2018/850 amended the 1999 directive with effect from 5 July 2020.
The Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators and repealing Directive 91/157/EEC, commonly known as the Battery Directive, regulates the manufacture and disposal of batteries in the European Union with the aim of "improving the environmental performance of batteries and accumulators".
Water supply and sanitation (WSS) in the European Union (EU) is the responsibility of each member state, but in the 21st century union-wide policies have come into effect. Water resources are limited and supply and sanitation systems are under pressure from urbanisation and climate change. Indeed, the stakes are high as the European Environmental Agency found that one European out of ten already suffers a situation of water scarcity and the IEA measured the energy consumption of the water sector to be equivalent to 3,5% of the electricity consumption of the EU.
In 2015, 43.5% of the United Kingdom's municipal waste was recycled, composted or broken down by anaerobic digestion. The majority of recycling undertaken in the United Kingdom is done by statutory authorities, although commercial and industrial waste is chiefly processed by private companies. Local Authorities are responsible for the collection of municipal waste and operate contracts which are usually kerbside collection schemes. The Household Waste Recycling Act 2003 required local authorities in England to provide every household with a separate collection of at least two types of recyclable materials by 2010. Recycling policy is devolved to the administrations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales who set their own targets, but all statistics are reported to Eurostat.
Vehicle recycling is the dismantling of vehicles for spare parts. At the end of their useful life, vehicles have value as a source of spare parts and this has created a vehicle dismantling industry. The industry has various names for its business outlets including wrecking yard, auto dismantling yard, car spare parts supplier, and recently, auto or vehicle recycling. Vehicle recycling has always occurred to some degree but in recent years manufacturers have become involved in the process. A car crusher is often used to reduce the size of scrapped vehicles for simplified transportation to a steel mill.
Waste are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste product may become a by-product, joint product or resource through an invention that raises a waste product's value above zero.
Electronic waste is a significant part of today's global, post-consumer waste stream. Efforts are being made to recycle and reduce this waste.
Waste management laws govern the transport, treatment, storage, and disposal of all manner of waste, including municipal solid waste, hazardous waste, and nuclear waste, among many other types. Waste laws are generally designed to minimize or eliminate the uncontrolled dispersal of waste materials into the environment in a manner that may cause ecological or biological harm, and include laws designed to reduce the generation of waste and promote or mandate waste recycling. Regulatory efforts include identifying and categorizing waste types and mandating transport, treatment, storage, and disposal practices.
The European Packaging and packaging waste directive 94/62/EC (1994) deals with the problems of packaging waste and the currently permitted heavy metal content in packaging.
Appliance recycling is the process of dismantling scrapped home appliances to recover their parts or materials for reuse. Recycling appliances for their original or other purposes, involves disassembly, removal of hazardous components and destruction of the equipment to recover materials, generally by shredding, sorting and grading. The rate at which appliances are discarded has increased due in part to obsolescence due to technological advancement, and in part to not being designed to be repairable. The main types of appliances that are recycled are televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and computers. When appliances are recycled, they can be looked upon as a valuable resources; if disposed of improperly, they can be environmentally harmful and poison ecosystems.
