The collection and treatment of ELVs can be summarized in two main stages; dismantling and shredding. There is a growing awareness of the threat of illegal dumping, so vehicles need to be transferred to authorized treatment facilities where the last owner of the vehicle is issued with a certificate of destruction. A glance at the minimum technical requirements for ELV dismantling and treatment, highlight the stringent nature of this piece of legislation. For instance, sites for storage must have impermeable surfaces with spillage collection facilities and equipment for the treatment of water. Those sites that treat the vehicles must have appropriate storage for dismantled spare parts, containers for the storage of batteries, and storage tanks for the segregated storage of the following fluids: fuel, motor oil, gearbox oil, hydraulic oil, cooling liquids, antifreeze, brake fluids, battery acids, air-conditioning system fluids. In addition, allowance has to be made for tire storage, the removal of batteries and gas tanks, neutralization of potentially explosive components (e.g. air-bags) and the removal of all components identified as containing mercury; for example, in car thermometers.
There has been significant investment put into those facilities that collect and treat used vehicles, given the range of materials that have to be processed in line with the ELV Directive. This has meant that the implementation of the law has been quite varied across the EU, as some member states have struggled with the breadth of regulations.
One reason for the inconsistency in collection and treatment of ELVs may lie in the area of producers’ responsibility. The idea of extended producer responsibility goes beyond the prevention of waste in the manufacturing process (see previous section) to the added obligation that, according to the Directive “producers should meet all, or a significant part of the costs on the collection and treatment of ELVs.” This type of thinking in waste management has gathered speed, in particular, in the electronics industry as a response to growing concern over both the amount and method of disposal of this type of waste.
The process has been termed “take-back” and is intended to shift the responsibility of waste disposal from governments and local authorities back to producers. In terms of the car industry, it can be argued that this should have a galvanizing effect in the way it addresses the use of both recycled and recyclable materials as well as minimizing the use of toxic products. As such, there is a significant long-term benefit for an industry seen to have a negative public image in terms of resource use.
More controversial however is the intended aim of “take-back” to incorporate the costs of waste management into the product’s price. This could have the negative impact of making European cars more expensive and therefore less competitive as demand for new cars increases in other countries. . Whatever the outcome it will be the consumer who bears the cost of an increase in waste management responsibilities.
In any event, since this is framed in legislation, it is a mandatory take-back scheme (early EPR initiatives have tended to be negotiated or voluntary) and so producers have sought to contract out the responsibility for ELV dismantling while financing it themselves. While some countries of the EU have set up comprehensive databases to facilitate this process, newer member states have been slower in meeting the demands of the legislation thus reducing the efficiency by which ELVs are collected and treated.
Once the collection and treatment has been completed, the ‘de-polluted’ vehicle is shredded, whereby all the ferrous metals are shredded and the heavier waste products are recovered (see below). The final stage of the process requires the remaining material to be compressed and transported for further processing.