New rules on the disposal of old cars and recyclable materials in them have been formally adopted by the EU. They should come into force over the next four years.
The European Commission has announced new regulations for the scrapping and recycling of old cars . Currently, 75 per cent of end-of-life vehicles are recycled.
The aim of the new EU directive is to increase the rate of re-use and recovery to 85 per cent of the car's average weight per vehicle by 2006, and to 95 per cent by 2015.
The measures will apply to cars and vans placed onto the market three years after the new directive is adopted. This means that they should take effect from 2008 onwards.
They will not apply, however, to vehicles with small production runs - less than 500 vehicles per year - in view of the considerable investment which small manufacterers would be required to undertake in order to modify their production.
This will come as a relief to the likes of Morgan in Britain, but will also mean that supercars such as the Porsche Carrera GT and Ferrari Enzo would be exempt.
The directive also includes provisions on the collection of all end-of-life vehicles.
EU member states must set up collection systems for end-of-life vehicles and for waste used parts. They must also ensure that all vehicles are transferred to authorised treatment facilities, and must set up a system of deregistration upon presentation of a certificate of destruction.
Such certificates are to be issued when the vehicle is transferred, free of charge, to a treatment facility. The last holder of an end-of-life vehicle will also be able to dispose of it free of charge.
Currently in Ireland various councils have agreements with removal firms, but charges vary greatly depending on the local council and they are able to set their own charges to cover costs. Significantly, producers must meet all, or a significant part of, the cost of applying this measure.
In 2002 just under 16 million new cars and vans came onto the European market. The Commission estimates that there are between nine and 10 million vehicles each year that reach the end of their life on average 13 to 14 years after they were first placed on the market, thus generating between eight and nine million tonnes of "waste".
"These provisions will not be workable without a major contribution from the motor industry," says Erkki Liikanen, the European Commission member with responsibility for enterprise policy.
Once the directive comes into force, the motor industry will be required to incorporate a greater proportion of recyclable materials into vehicles and to conceive of vehicles from the design stage in terms of recycling and dismantling, so as to facilitate the re-use and recycling of components.
Several waste streams have already been the subject of Community regulation - among them waste oil, waste batteries and accumulators, waste packaging and sewage sludge.
It's estimated that at present a car weighing 1,000 kg contains between 700 and 750 kg of metal. Consequently, some 150kg to 200kg of non-metallic materials including about 95kg of plastics that will have to be recycled from January 2006 onwards, and more from 2015 in view of the increasing part that lightweight materials are will play in vehicle construction.