Geneva, Switzerland — During this year’s International Automotive Recycling Congress (IARC), they talked about some new changes happening to the End of Life (ELV) Directive, which hasn’t been changed since its inception in 2000.
With all of the changing technologies in the auto industry it has now been decided that the ELV Directive needs to catch up. Artemis Hatzi-Hull, from the European Commission in Belgium talked about the renewal of the ELV directive and how it needed to include some key elements that weren’t prevalent when it was first created, like electric vehicles.
The main goals with the renewal is to encourage the reuse, recycle and recovery of ELVs, have vehicles become more environmentally friendly and make sure the internal market runs smoothly without distortion of competition.
The new vehicles that come out today are fundamentally different than the ones just 20 years ago and Hatzi-Hull believes there needs to be more focus on how to deal with those vehicles when they do come to the end of their life and how to do it in an environmentally conscious way.
Moving forward, Hatzi-Hull says that the following is what needs to be explored when reviewing the ELV Directive:
1) eliminating implementation obstacles:
- Include motorcycles and bigger trucks
- fully-fledged EPR scheme
- “missing vehicles”: improved vehicle traceability system
- tackle export of used vehicles vs ELVs
- strengthen enforcement mechanism (mandatory inspections, reporting)
2) address technological advancement and future challenges:
- upgrade eco-design of cars
- set ambitious, specific and measurable targets for reuse and recycling (material based approach)
- mandatory use of recycled content
- Extend lifetime: repair, remanufacturing, reuse (SOURCE Auto Recycling World)
