letsrecycle.com

Government urged to clamp down on illegal ELV sites

By Will Date

The chair of the trade association for vehicle recyclers has called on the government to step up its efforts to tackle non-compliant ELV sites, following a spate of prosecutions of ATF operators.

Under regulations brought into force following the End-of-Life Vehilce (ELV) Directive in 2006, operators of Authorised Treatment Facilities (ATFs) treating scrap vehicles are required to report their recycling performance annually to the government, and to ensure that they have met a minimum 85% reuse, recycling and recovery rate.

BIS claims there has been a widespread repeated failure by ATF operators to submit the required recycling data. Picture courtesy of: www.buyablephotos.co.uk
BIS claims there has been a widespread repeated failure by ATF operators to submit the required recycling data. Picture courtesy of: www.buyablephotos.co.uk

Prior to the regulations coming into force the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) contacted all of the UKs ATF operators to inform them of the Regulations and their duties to report each calendar years data.

Failure

It also issued ATFs with guidance notes and wrote to non-compliant facilities, but despite these measures, BIS claims there has been a widespread repeated failure to submit the required data.

In late 2011 and early 2012, seven firms were prosecuted for failing to meet their responsibilities under the ELV Regulations, receiving fines between 883 and 4,421 each, the first such prosecutions against non-compliant ATF operators. A further four prosecutions have been made this year, and BIS has confirmed that a number of cases are still ongoing.

Dr Chas Ambrose, chairman of the Motor Vehicle Dismantlers Association (MVDA) welcomed the news of legal action by BIS, but warned that there could be more than 1000 non compliant ATFs across the country and said that much greater action would be needed if the problem is to be solved.

Action

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Dr Ambrose said: This is a massive issue across the industry, the few prosecutions that have taken place are just the tip of the iceberg. The 85% recycling and reuse target became law in 2006, but it was only last year that they started prosecuting those that had not reported.

There are about 1700 ATFs in the UK, but only about 300 or 400 are reporting at the moment, and that is a legal requirement, so by not doing so they are breaking the law. The UK has failed to meet its ELV recycling target every year since it was imposed, and the 300 or 400 that have met the target have borne all of the costs, while the others have ignored it.
The fines themselves are only around 5,000, it is outrageous. We think that prosecutions should have happened a long time ago, since 2007 BIS should have been considering legal action but they have dragged their heels.

So far the UK has yet to meet the required recycling, recovery and reuse rate of 85% set under the 2006 Directive (see letsrecycle.com story) although the European Commission has said that is not likely to take action against the UK for failing to meet the target.

Related Links

BIS – ELVs

MVDA

A BIS spokesman said: The Department for Business works closely with the automotive industry to reduce the impact of waste materials on the environment and support recycling best practice under the End-of-Life Vehicles (Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2005.

In some instances businesses continually disregard their obligations, and as a result the government will take legal action to hold these businesses to account.

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