EPA says Ireland has met 2018 ELV targets

More than 86% of the country’s ELVs were reused or recycled in 2018, with the figure rising to

when recovery is included. The reuse and recovery target was set at 95% from 1 January 2015 by the European Commission.

The figures will now be submitted to the Commission for approval before the results are released in full for the 2018 calendar year.

Fiacra Quinn is chief executive of ELV Environmental Services (ELVES), the Irish ELV producer compliance scheme launched in 2017. ELVES says that in working with the authorised treatment facilities (ATFs) in its network and supporting post-shredder processing it has played a direct role in the attainment of the target.

Mr Quinn said: “We are delighted to have been able to use the resources we have to support and to drive target achievement both in our network and nationally.”

The EPA says it uses information provided by ATFs and other waste facilities to gather data on ELV collection and processing.

Trends

An ELV is defined as a cars or light commercial vehicle weighing less than 3.5 tonnes and no longer suitable for use.

In 2017 Ireland just missed EU targets, having achieved a reuse and recovery rate of 94.6%. The UK had a rate of 94.1% (see letsrecycle.com story).

The EPA says more than 162,500 ELVs were treated in Ireland in 2018. This was an increase of approximately 16% from 2017.

The EPA figures show reuse and recycling has remained stable at 86% since 2016, while reuse and recovery rates have shown gradual year-on-year improvements since 2014.

ELVs generate between 8 and 9 million tonnes of waste in the European Union (EU) annually, the EPA says. An online consultation on the European Commission’s ELV legislation launched in August 2019 drew 127 contributions from the industry (see letsrecycle.com story).

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