End of Life Vehicles Fact File

Motor vehicles have only been around for just over one hundred years. However, due to the mass production of cars, around 2 million end of life vehicles (ELVs) are arising in the UK each year. About 1.2 million of these ELVs will first go to a vehicle dismantler, with the remaining 0.6 million going directly to scrap yards 2,3.

The End of Life Vehicles Directive

The aim of the End of Life Vehicles Directive (2000/53/EC) is to reduce the environmental impact of ELVs and promote the collection, re-use and recycling of ELV components. There are two broad categories of ELVs:

1Premature ELVs which are quite new cars resulting from accident write-offs

2Natural ELVs which have reached the end of their life technically or economically. 7

The main requirements of the ELV Directive are (Environment Agency):

1Producers limit the use of certain hazardous substances in the manufacture of new vehicles and automotive components and promote the recyclability of their vehicles

2Ensure that the hazardous materials are removed before a vehicle is dismantled

3From 2007 producers pay all or a significant part of the costs of take-back of nil or negative value vehicles to a treatment facility

4Treatment facilities must have a permit if they want to deal with ELVs and should operate to higher environmental standards

5To meet reuse and recovery targets of 95% respectively by average weight per vehicle and year are to be met by 1 January 2015

6To meet reuse and recycling targets of 85%, respectively by average weight per vehicle and year are to be met by 1 January 2015. 7

End of Life Vehicles (ELV) Regulations

The ELV Directive aims to reduce the amount of waste from vehicles (cars and vans) when they are finally scrapped. In particular, it includes tightened environmental standards for vehicle treatment sites, requires that last owners must be able to dispose of their vehicles free of charge from 2007 (and requires producers to pay all or a significant part of the free take-back from this date), sets rising reuse, recycling and recovery targets and restricts the use of hazardous substances in both new vehicles and replacement vehicle parts.

The remaining provisions were the subject of The End-of-Life Vehicles (Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2005that came into effect in March 2005. These regulations set out the requirements for vehicle producers to have an available network of facilities where the last owners of their brands of vehicles may take them for treatment at the end of their lives. These facilities are required to provide this service free of charge from 1 January 2007 (where vehicles are largely complete and do not contain any other waste types).7, 2, 3

The UK has implemented the ELV Directive through its ELV Regulations 2003 and 2005.

The 2003 regulations implemented a large amount of the requirements set by the Directive including (Environment Agency):

1Improved standards for treatment sites

2New technical standards that apply to new vehicles

3Establishment of Certificate of Destruction (CoD) system, whereby a CoD has to be issued to the last holder of any vehicle in the following classes:

passenger carrying vehicles up to 3500kg

light goods vehicles up to 3500kg

othree-wheel motor vehicles (excluding tricycles)

The CoD system makes sure that ELVs will be treated and disposed of correctly because a CoD is only allowed to be issued by an Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF). The ATF has to be a permitted facility which accepts waste motor vehicles, and complies with all the requirements of the ELV regulations (Environment Agency). 6 8

Abandoned vehicles

The cost to the country to remove abandoned vehicles is a staggering £24 million. In 2003 over 1/2 million people complained to their council about the problem of abandoned vehicles - with some councils spending as much as £80,000 a year. Abandoned and nuisance vehicles not only look unsightly but pose a real danger from fires, explosion and injury and crime. Often the result of or leading to crime, abandoned vehicles can add to the decline of the amenity value of an area making resident feel unsafe and vulnerable.4

Abandoned vehicles and the law

The law governing the removal of vehicles is contained in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984,the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978 and the Removal and Disposal Of Vehicle Regulations 1986 (amended) 2002. Local authorities are have a duty under Section 3 of the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978, to remove a vehicle which is abandoned in their area, on any land in the open air, or on any other land forming part of a highway. However, this does not cover vehicles abandoned on private land. Under this Act, abandoning a vehicle is a criminal offence.

With the global economic downturn creating uncertainty in the value of scrap metal, the proper disposal of scrap vehicles is once again becoming a real concern - particularly in remote rural areas of the UK 5,8,9

Useful Referenced Links:

1 Consortium of Automotive Recyclinghttp://www.caregroup.org.uk

2 Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) The End-of-Vehicles (Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2005 Statutory Instrument 2005, No.263 http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file30646.pdf

3Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) 2005, Producer Responsibility: End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs),

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/topics/elvehicledir.htm

4 ENCAMS. End of Life Vehicle Campaign

http://www.encams.org/campaigns/main2.asp?pageid=56

5 ENCAMS Nuisance & Abandoned Vehicles

http://www.encams.org/advice/main2.asp?pageid=39

6 Environment Agency. End of Life Vehicles - Authorised Treatment Facilities Public Register List

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/regulation/38849.aspx

7 Environment Agency. Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2000 on end-of life vehicles

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/consleg/2000/L/02000L0053-20050701-en.pdf?lang=_e

8 Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI). The End-of-Life Vehicles (Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2005. Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 263.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2005/20050263.htm

9 Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) Statutory Instrument 2002 No. 746 The Removal and Disposal of Vehicles (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2002

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20020746.htm