What is the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive?

In the early 1990’s, the European Parliament specifically targeted end-of-life vehicles as a “...priority waste-stream” for two significant reasons:

1. Concerns regarding the increasing amount of ‘waste’ produced during the disposal process of ELV’s, and

2. The generally poor environmental practices of the traditional car breakers and scrap yards that were responsible for the disposal of the majority of all ELV’s.

So to regulate this waste-stream, the first version of a law regarding ELV disposal emerged in 1997 and became a European Directive in October 2000. It was finally adopted as a UK law on the 21st April 2002.

What are the aims of the ELV Directive?

The main objectives of the Directive are to try and minimise the amount of waste generated from the ELV disposal process, whilst also reducing any adverse environmental impacts caused through current dismantling practices.

At present, approximately 75% of an end-of-life vehicle is recovered (by weight) via the conventional scrap metal recycling process. However, the recycling and recovery targets set by the ELV Directive are far more stringent, aiming for 85% by January 2006 and 95% by January 2015 – and these targets will only be achieved through the increased recycling, recovery and re-use of a vehicle’s components (in other words, by fully de-polluting each vehicle before scrapping it).

Over the coming years the directive is aimed at increasing the percentage of recoverable and recyclable materials used in the manufacture of motor vehicles and recovered during the dismantling and recycling process.

It will not be immediately evident to the general public, but there are a great many planned changes to the way vehicles are manufactuered, dismantlers and recyclers handle, reuse and reprocess materials and the discovery of new recycling routes for materials currently designated as land-fill waste.