Problems pile up for old vehicles law

Scrap metal is a lucrative business to be in at the moment. The price of metals is rising and the demand for recycled metal is booming in emerging economies. Scrap traders can get good money from recycling the metal in old cars. But this is not necessarily good news for the environment.

There are some parts of cars, such as airbags containing carcinogenic material and batteries containing mercury and lead, that are potentially harmful if they find their way into the air and water.

The introduction in 2003 of the EU’s end-of-life vehicles directive was supposed to ensure that old vehicles are properly fed through the recycling chain when sold for scrap.

But dumping of such materials is still commonplace across much of the EU.

According to a study published by the European Parliament’s environment, public health and food safety committee this year, only the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Austria have correctly implemented the directive.

One of the EU’s worst performing states was the UK, where last year toxic components from up to 1.3 million cars are estimated to have been dumped illegally. Much of the problem seems to be caused by slack administrative procedures allowing rogues to undercut registered recyclers.

So-called approved treatment facilities for dismantling cars are struggling to survive.

Andy Kenny, of Northend Salvage, a recycler based in Stalybridge, in the north-west of England, says: "We had to invest quite a bit of money to deal with this [the end-of-life vehicles directive]. We were being told by environment inspectors that this was the future. But we found people were circumventing it all, cutting us out of the market, drawing cash wages," says Kenny. "We were all dressed up with nowhere to go."

He set up the End of Life Vehicle Recyclers Association (ELVRA) last year in the aim of pushing for stricter compliance with the directive. He contacted UK Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies to draw his attention to the problems. "We shocked him," says Kenny. "He was flabbergasted because his information was different to our experience. Sometimes government agencies paint a rosier picture than people doing it at the coalface."

Part of the reason why the directive is not working as well as it should is the reluctance of member states to impose costs on carmakers.

In Germany, where the directive has been a success, carmakers must take back all their vehicles in an authorised permitted collection facility or an authorised dismantling facility. At the collection or dismantling facility, the owner is then given a certificate of destruction free of charge.

Scrap metal is a lucrative business to be in at the moment. The price of metals is rising and the demand for recycled metal is booming in emerging economies. Scrap traders can get good money from recycling the metal in old cars. But this is not necessarily good news for the environment.