ELV recycling ties into circular economy, says EU commissioner

The recycling of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) will benefit from the circular economy package adopted by the European Commission, according to an EU commissioner who addressed delegates to the International Automobile Recycling Congress (IARC) 2016 event in Berlin.

“The measures planned by the European Commission in the field of design and innovation for the circular economy will contribute toward increasing recycling rates for materials such as steel, precious metals or plastics,” said Artemis Hatzi-Hull, director general for the environment of the EU Commission.

Hatzi-Hull says the new circular economy package also will produce additional positive effects. She referred to the planned measures to improve eco-design, which are aimed at increasing the durability, reparability and recyclability of many products. Moreover, she expects that new advanced technologies will have a positive impact on employment in the recycling sector, specifically mentioning dismantling and treatment plants, including shredder and post-shredder operations.

Dr. Tobias Bahr, environmental policy director at the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), said the automotive industry has already embedded the concept of the circular economy in product development, manufacturing and an array of newly offered services. “Strong international competition automatically leads to resources being used in the most efficient way,” he commented.

Bahr spoke in favour of an integrated approach that embraces the entire life cycle, which is preferable to an isolated consideration of resource-efficient aspects at the end of a product's useful life. In most cases, the use phase of a vehicle is predominant and accounts for around 80 per cent of its ecological footprint. The use phase has the greatest impact on the amount of carbon emissions a vehicle produces and its consumption of fossil fuel resources. By contrast, the environmental impact at the end of a product’s life cycle only accounts for around 1 percent, he said.

Dr Kay Oppat, chief operations officer of the Germany-based metal recycling company Scholz, told delegates there are still too many ELVs being exported, the whereabouts of which are unknown. The recycling industry is therefore losing out on large amounts of raw materials. For this reason, new approaches are needed to improve the registration of ELVs in Europe, said Oppat.

Financial incentives need to be put in place for a take-back system and the introduction of a burden of proof for the exporter, to ensure the vehicle being exported is really a used one. And the exchange of information between manufacturer, the final owner of the ELV and recyclers needs to be made more transparent, Oppat added.

The International Automobile Recycling Congress (IARC) is held annually and organized by Switzerland-based ICM AG .