Ford Signs Deal in Europe to Shred Vehicles

Ford Motor UK has signed the first formal agreement with the scrap industry to provide a free "take back" service to car owners whose vehicles have reached the end of their useful lives.

The company is setting up a national network of centers with Cartakeback, a subsidiary of the UK Shredders consortium.

The venture is being set up in response to a European Union directive that requires auto manufacturers to take full responsibility for end-of-life vehicles from that date and to comply with targets of recycling or recovering 85 per cent of a vehicle by weight. The venture is expected to involve only a token outlay by Ford.

Cartakeback will keep the earnings from the recycling process. Other carmakers are expected to set up similar schemes without too much hesitation.

Ford said last night that the company itself would be setting processing standards at the centres and that they be higher than those being set up by the environment Department.

The program will start Jan. 1, 2007. The move by Ford Motor is the first time a manufacturer in the United Kingdom to implement a comprehensive plan to meet the European Commission’s ELV vehicle directive.

According to published reports the first Ford-appointed site in the network is GW & G Bridges Ltd. of Crawley, Sussex. The other sites in the Ford network will be announced, as they are appointed, between now and August.

All the sites will provide a comprehensive and professional service for owners of Ford Motor Company ELVs from 1 January 2007 at the latest. This is the date at which the disposal of all qualifying ELVs - regardless of the date of a vehicle's first registration - become the responsibility of the manufacturer.