Europe – Commission reviews ELV Directive targets: stakeholder group report

The European Commission is under an obligation to prepare a report for the Parliament and Council on the implementation of the EU Directive on end of life vehicles (ELVs). The Commission opted to do this using a Stakeholder Working Group consultation process, chaired by Bill Duncan – Director of ASSURRE.



The final report of the Stakeholder Working Group which comprised Industry, Member States and Regional Governments and NGOs is now available.



Conclusions



Waste fractions are differently defined, and treatment methods are differently classified across the Member States. Not enough ELVs are being captured within the national certified ATF systems. Too many are not being picked up by a functioning deregistration system, and are therefore either being diverted via unauthorized channels, or are simply being dumped illegally.



In some countries, an adequate infrastructure does not exist, either for “quality” dismantlers who are or could be certified, or for shredder capacity within the country.



In order to meet the 2015 Reuse and Recycling target of 85% would require as much as 50% of the non metallic rest fraction to find profitable new markets as recycled products i.e. assuming 75% by weight of ELVs are metals, and accepting that 5% by weight of ELVs can be disposed of in landfills, then 20% of the ELV is the non metallic rest waste fraction. Reuse of spare parts will modify this equation to some degree. It stands to reason that this will simply not happen as long as the lack of markets and the negative costs remain insurmountable barriers to progress. A more flexible approach is needed to lower costs and facilitate the development of alternative routes to achieve the Directive‘‘s key objective of reducing the disposal of waste.



Lack of robust monitoring systems makes a really reliable assessment of the status quo difficult (and much of the data comes only from ATF‘‘s). However, there is enough evidence to suggest that many countries are struggling with “on the ground” implementation.



The lack of drivers for change, whether legislative (at the grass roots Member States level), or economic (funding, incentives, profitable markets) will hold back the development of the ELV waste sector. The biggest single issue is that 40% or more of ELVs in several Member States are not being captured by the certified systems in place and therefore the Directive is largely failing in its objective of achieving a high level of environmental protection.



Many cars are being sold and legally exported second hand, in the main to the new Member States. This trend may cause some difficulty in predicting ELV flows in some Member States, but has no impact on the realisation of the ELV Directive targets. The complexity of the process chains, as well as the numerous actors involved, makes it difficult to achieve a high degree of data reliability especially in the early phase of implementation. Nevertheless, it is probable that many Member States will report reuse, recycling and recovery performances more or less in line with the 2006 targets, based upon those ELVs captured and using their own definitions and interpretations.



The report considers that some of the new Member States may not however be able to develop their systems quickly enough to meet the 2006 targets on time