DTI issues new guidance on vehicle recycling targets

Coming a full year after the DTI brought Europe's End of Life Vehicles Directive fully into UK law, the new guidance provides more details on how to meet the Directive's target to recycle or recover energy from 85% of ELVs by 2006.

The UK must accelerate the recycling of non-metallic vehicle components to meet EU recycling targets

The recycling target must be met by both those vehicle recyclers that have signed up to producer responsibility networks under the Directive – and also authorised treatment facilities operating independently.

A slightly lower target of 75% applies to vehicles placed on the market before 1980.

Within the guidance, recyclers are told to assume 75% of all vehicles are being recycled, because that is the average metal content of UK ELVs (see letsrecycle.com story). And, a further 1% can be assumed to be fuel within vehicles that is recycled or re-used.

Focus
Recyclers must therefore focus their efforts on the 9 percentage point increase needed in recycling rates to reach the target by recycling non-metallic materials. No more than five percentage points of this can be through energy recovery.

Vehicle dismantlers and shredders must then send a certificate of compliance to the DTI before April 2007 to show that the recycling target has been achieved during 2006.

The DTI guidance also provides some detail on how to take account of badly-burned vehicles or incomplete ELVs, but further guidance on Certificates of Destruction and a database of vehicle weights is yet to be provided.

Data
Vehicle recyclers have complained that the DTI is still to provide full data reporting requirements, and that they do not yet know what the government requires them to report regarding the treatment of old vehicles.

Speaking in a meeting in Parliament on Wednesday night, Max Pemberton, the chairman of recycling network provider Autogreen, said his company did not know what to ask of authorised treatment facilities signing up to his network.

Mr Pemberton said: “The information we have got to get from them still isn't available. We have to essentially say we want to contract you to form part of our network, but we can't tell you what you have to do yet.”