The contracted recyclers are known as authorised treatment facilities (ATFs) and operate as vehicle dismantlers and scrapyards. From January 1 this year the ATFs will be used by the service providers to deliver free takeback for ELVs. The service providers in turn are contracted by manufacturers to operate free take-back for ELVs.
Cartakeback Ltd and Autogreen told letsrecycle.com yesterday they believed their recyclers had met the 80% recycling and re-use target set for ELVs in 2006.
 Facilities contracted to recycle ELVs for free believe they have met their European targets for 2006 |
The companies also revealed that they consider their facilities have also met the higher 85% reuse and recovery target for 2006.
Although the requirement for motor manufacturers to offer free take-back services for last owners of vehicles only came into force this month (see letsrecycle.com story), recycling targets were set for the end of 2006.
Confirming the belief that targets were being met, Kathryn Byng, ATF co-ordinator at Cartakeback, said: “We have been collating our data for 2006 and we will definitely have both of the targets for recycling and recovery.”
Mike Austin-Dodds, general manager of Autogreen, said: “Cartakeback and ourselves are on target to meet the targets, which is encouraging.”
But, there remains uncertainty over whether vehicle dismantlers that are not part of Cartakeback or Autogreen's networks of contracted sites have met the recycling targets. There is a wide range of non-contracted ATFs, which also includes metal recycling giants EMR and Sims Group. All are legally required to meet the recycling targets for any ELVs they process. Sims and EMR are known to have invested heavily in dismantling equipment to achieve the recovery and recycling targets although some difficulties remain with materials such as plastics.
The next targets set by the ELV Directive are to recycle and re-use 85% of ELVs by weight by 2015, and to recover value from 95% of ELVs by that year.
Cartakeback
Cartakeback, which was set up by 11 independent UK shredder operators, says it is managing the recycling site networks for around 75% of car manufacturers who operate in the UK. This includes Ford, Nissan and Renault.
The company attributed the success of the recycling facilities working under its name to investment in recycling technology, hard work and improved communication.
The achievement is seen by some involved as challenging fears that the ELV Directive's recycling targets would be too difficult to reach, since only 76% of vehicles by weight are deemed easily recyclable (75% plus 1% fuel).
Ms Byng said: “We've developed bespoke financial data system software for all our ATFs to calculate the weight of cars and recycling targets with a direct link to enable operators to issue Certificates of Destruction, which has made a big difference. We've also been putting a lot of time and effort into putting everything in place and recruiting new treatment sites.”
Ms Byng said that the targets had been “about right”, since many facilities were already capable of recycling and re-using 80% of vehicles and vehicle parts.
However, she said: “There's a lot of work to be done to meet the 95% target for 2015 so we are already working on it. For instance, we are pioneering new technology to recover more material post-shredding.”
Autogreen
At Autogreen, which was set up by car dismantlers to serve companies that include Honda and BMW, Mr Austin-Dodds claimed that dismantlers had a natural advantage in terms of reaching recycling targets.
He said: “Dismantling vehicles encourages a high rate of recycling. Dismantlers have been recycling for years anyway and now they are just physically recording more recycling data as more attention is focused on the recycling side of businesses in general.”
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Mr Austin-Dodds said that the 2015 recycling targets were a “big leap” and that the company's network would need to achieve more and more recycling each year. However, he stressed that achieving the targets would depend upon the rest of the country's recycling performance.
He said: “Only 30% of the country is contracted, so we cannot speak for uncontracted facilities or the UK as a whole. We will wait to see how other facilities are doing when the DTI collates all the ELV recycling and recovery data in March before we decide on way forward.”
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