Car ownership has increased extremely rapidly over the last 30 years as incomes have risen and future projected growth translates into a growing number of scrapped cars that will need to be dealt with. This mounting source of waste poses a range of threats from heavy metal pollution of water supplies to the fire risk from stock-piles of tires. There is recognition that conventional laws on environmental protection and pollution control are insufficient to deal with the chronic threat posed both by the volume and complexity of vehicle waste.
The EU Directive on End of Life Vehicles (2000) was the front-runner in imposing more specific laws on the safe disposal of cars and, importantly, placing greater obligations on car producers. This extended producer responsibility (EPR) has been an important step in acknowledging the role manufacturers have in making finite resource consumption more efficient. Whilst many sections of the global economy would baulk at the prospect of regulations that are as prescriptive as the European ELV Directive, this piece of legislation may have the effect of forcing the car industry to re-think its whole manufacturing process. In light of sharp increases in the price of raw materials and a constant need to improve their environmental credentials, this could give them a framework to achieve greater sustainability.
In addition, with its comprehensive regulations on treatment facilities and ambitious recycling targets, the EU Directive has become the template that other countries have used. Despite the fact that many of the challenges posed by a continent-wide piece of legislation should not apply to national attempts to pass such regulations, it has not worked in the case of the United States. Commercial and political obstacles have thwarted attempts to implement this type of law and there remain problems in establishing ultimate responsibility for vehicle waste. In a country where the cost of fuel suggests that car ownership is seen as a right rather than a privilege, the implications of relying on outdated legislation in the form of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts are a greater pressure on national and state environmental protection agencies without necessarily providing a long term improvement in, for example, water quality.
In the meantime, European legislation is evolving to address electric and electronic products both with how they are disposed of and the controls on the materials that go into them, such as the lead content and also larger vehicles that are currently exempt (trucks and buses).
Given the geographical shift in the car industry, it’s encouraging from an environmental perspective that rapidly developing economies do see the benefits of greater EPR, but there still remain significant challenges in the way vehicles are disposed of and how far environmental protection measures are adhered to. It may be more beneficial for governments, car companies, and waste management agencies to view the increasing likelihood of comprehensive environmental legislation in relation to used vehicles as a commercial opportunity in a number of areas.
The increased demand for improved recycling technologies is an obvious one, as treatment facilities are required to deal with a greater range of by-products and also to assist places where the recycling process is largely a manual process. However, there is potential too in the development of alternatives to toxic materials (especially heavy metals) and through the provision of business services for treatment facilities (for example database management) in anticipation of the growth in business they will probably experience.
Bibliography
- Konz, R (2009) The End of Life Vehicle Directive: The Road to Responsible Disposal. Minnesota Journal of international Law
- Gao, G (2008) China to issue new standard of ELV recycling in 2008. www.gasgoo.com
- Chen, Ming and Zhang, Fan (2009) End-of-Life Recovery in China: Consideration and Innovation following the EU ELV Directive. JOM