The European Commission brought new rules into force on Thursday covering how vehicles are designed, produced, collected and processed at the end of their life, requiring manufacturers to fund their disposal and restricting exports of used cars outside the European Union.
Around 10 to 12 million vehicles across Europe reach the end of their life each year and are treated as waste, according to a Commission briefing note. Those vehicles hold significant quantities of valuable materials including steel, aluminium, copper and plastics.
The Commission wants the rules to increase recovery, reuse and recycling of those materials, cut the environmental damage caused by poor handling of scrapped vehicles, and reduce Europe’s dependence on imports of raw materials and complete cars.
Producers pick up the cost
Manufacturers will have to secure adequate funding for managing vehicles at the end of their life, which the Commission expects to deliver higher quality recycling.
The regulation also tightens the rules on exporting used vehicles outside the EU. Only vehicles fit to be driven can be exported, limiting the risk of waste being shipped to third countries.
Commission frames rules as industrial policy
Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy Stéphane Séjourné said the regulation is not only about waste but about “resilience and Europe’s industrial future”.
The rules will cut dependence on outside suppliers, strengthen Europe’s economic security and keep strategic resources inside the EU, he said.
Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy Commissioner Jessika Roswall called the regulation a new European standard for how vehicles are designed, produced and recovered.
“This is about more than recycling,” she said, adding that the aim is to secure critical materials and move the European car industry to a genuinely circular model.
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