The European Commission wants to make it easier to recycle vehicles. She proposes new design codes to simplify the recovery of valuable materials and urges greater use of recycled materials in the production of new cars.
The end-of-life vehicle regulation presented by the Commission on Thursday (July 13) also sets new take-back requirements and introduces digital tracking of end-of-life vehicles “to stop vehicles disappearing.”
In addition, the Commission wants to introduce a ban on the export of non-roadworthy used cars. Many such cars are currently leaving Europe for other continents, especially Africa, contributing to a higher number of road deaths.
Around 6 million cars reach the end of their life cycle in the EU every year, with some of the valuable materials they contain ending up in landfills.
One of the main aims of the law is to ensure that these important raw materials – plastics, steel and aluminum – remain in the European production cycle.
Europe has shortages of many of the rare earths needed for the EV transition, with greater recovery and reuse seen as key to reducing the Union’s dependency on imports.
“In the next few years, more and more zero-emission cars will come onto the market, which will increase the demand for valuable raw materials. Our proposal will ensure that we recycle and reuse as many of these materials as possible to breathe new life into the components of our cars and significantly reduce the environmental footprint of our road transport,” said Frans Timmermans, responsible for the Green Deal.
Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton says the legislation will contribute to Europe’s ambitions of a “circular economy” where goods are reused, not wasted.
“Our new proposal will support the transition of the automotive industry to a circular economy, boost the recycling industry, create more than 22,000 jobs and improve the functioning of the internal market,” he stressed.
The Commission estimates that the regulation will not only create new jobs, but will also boost the European economy by around €1.8 billion by 2035, while saving 12.3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
The legislation builds on the recently adopted EU Battery Regulation, which sets strict criteria for the collection and recyclability of batteries, as well as targets for the recovery and reuse of the critical raw materials contained in the batteries.
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The proposal also states that it must be easier to dismantle old cars. Manufacturers must give dismantlers clear instructions on how to replace and remove parts.
A quarter of the plastic used in new vehicles must be recycled, of which 25 percent comes from end-of-life vehicles.
The scope of the law is gradually being extended to other vehicles, including motorcycles, trucks and buses.
The proposal will now be submitted to the European Parliament and EU Member States for scrutiny before being made legally binding.
reactions
The trade association ACEA, which represents car manufacturers, warned that the proposal overlaps existing regulations and could potentially confuse manufacturers.
“While the proposal pushes for ambitious recycled content targets, European automakers believe that legislators should instead focus on creating a coherent legal framework that balances conflicting waste, product and chemical regulations for vehicles,” said Sigrid de Vries, Director General of ACEA.
De Vries doubted that the market could provide automakers with enough recycled material.
“We are also concerned that before proposing these ambitious targets, the Commission did not adequately analyze the imbalances in demand and supply of recycled materials and the existing technology gaps,” she said.
ACEA also pointed out that some innovative materials used by manufacturers are difficult to recycle. These concerns were also shared by the trade association Plastics Europe.
“Many of the plastics used in the automotive industry are high-performance products that require the highest quality polymers available and can be very difficult to recycle,” said Virginia Janssens, Managing Director of Plastics Europe.
“The ambitious targets of 25% recycled content proposed by the Commission can only be achieved with a combination of mechanical recycling and innovative technologies such as chemical recycling,” she added. She called on the Commission to give the recycling industry the “green light” to invest in chemical recycling processes.
Green NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) called the proposal “timid” and cited the lack of ambition in recycling targets compared to the current directive.
T&E was particularly critical of the decision to only set a mandatory target for the use of recycled plastics in new vehicles, arguing that steel and aluminum should also be subject to that target. Here the Commission has committed to a feasibility study to identify potential targets for both materials.
T&E also questioned the effectiveness of the export restrictions, stating that the lack of ambition in setting minimum vehicle age or mileage and emissions standards will mainly hurt residents of the Global South.
[Bearbeitet von Alice Taylor/Kjeld Neubert]
2023-07-14 13:51:03
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