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One reason why uncontracted ATFs have been allowed to charge last owners is because of the impracticality of preventing them from doing so. If a last owner is living nine miles from a contracted ATF offering free take back and next door to an uncontracted ATF, that last owner may wish to save the journey and pay a small fee to have the ELV taken by the nearby uncontracted ATF - the ELV is, after all, the last owner's property.

It would be an easy matter, too, for an ATF to agree with a last owner to make the vehicle incomplete, or to add some other waste materials, thereby foregoing the entitlement to free take back.

During 2006, targets are to be reached to re-use and recover 85% of ELVs by weight, with at least 80% through recycling. The DTI believes that by specifying the network density of contracted ATF, the producer will provide accessible free take back as the Directive requires, but if someone wants to go outside the system, a last owner should not be prevented from doing that.

This may well put vehicle dismantlers and recyclers in a much stronger position than they had feared with respect to negotiating contracts with the motor manufacturers. Particularly since there is little time remaining for producers to arrange their contract networks - and certainly not sufficient time for producers to gain planning permission for their own in-house ATFs.

Recycling targets
ATF networks will be operational by the beginning of 2006, and during 2006 the facilities have to achieve the first recycling targets of the ELV Directive so that the UK will fulfil its Directive requirements on January 1, 2007.

These targets are to re-use and recover 85% of ELVs by weight, with at least 80% of the weight of ELVs being recycled. For vehicles placed on the market before 1980, there are lower targets of 75% re-use and recovery and 70% recycling.

Producers will be responsible for meeting these targets through their contracted networks. Importantly, uncontracted ATFs do not escape the targets - they will also have to reach the recovery targets for the vehicles they choose to take in.

Collectively, contracted and uncontracted ATFs will help the UK comply with the ELV Directive, and by 2015 the targets rise to 95% re-use and recycling including 90% recycling for ELVs.

While these recycling targets seem rather high, most of the weight of an ELV is made up of metals, and virtually all of these are already being recycled. It is thought that about 75% of the average car is some form of ferrous or non-ferrous metal.

An agreement reached in the European Union's Technical Adaptation Committee, will mean that a Member State can assume a certain percentage of ELVs is automatically recycled or reused because it is metallic. This means producers would only have to provide evidence for the recovery of enough non-metallic materials to get from, for example, the current 75% rate up to the target 85% rate.

The UK has decided to adopt this approach, and the precise proportion that the DTI will accept as the amount of metals in UK ELVs is to be determined in shredder trials that will take place some time this year. The tests must be completed by the end of 2005, but expectations are that they will take place during the summer of 2005.

The exact form of evidence that will be used to prove that sufficient recycling has been carried out by ATFs has not yet been determined either.

This is being discussed by the government and the regulatory agencies in the next few weeks, and will be added as revisions to the guidance notes. The Commission has not yet published its decision concerning a form of evidence to be used across Europe, but this is expected to be published in the Official Journal soon.

This is the first Own Marque producer responsibility system in the UK. We will therefore have to keep a close eye on the operation of the system.
- DTI spokesman Monitoring
The ELV Directive has now been fully implemented in the UK, and while discussions over this month's new regulations have been protracted over the last months, the major components of the regulations have not changed from the consultation that closed in March 2004.

But, DTI officials will now be monitoring how the regulations are put into practice, and will be calling on the trade associations - the SMMT, the BMRA, the MVDA and the BVSF - to provide feedback on the potential difficulties that arise. And, as with the packaging producer responsibility system, there could be minor amendments to the regulations along the way.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, a spokesman for the DTI explained: "We recognise that this is the first Own Marque producer responsibility system that has been introduced in the UK. We will therefore have to keep a close eye on the operation of the system. Our intention is to re-convene the ELV consultation group as an advisory forum to advise us on their members' experience on the ground."

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