Upcoming European Union rules governing the disposal of old cars are set to significantly affect vehicle recyclers in the United States, according to a leading figure in the global recycling industry.
Robin Wiener, who leads the US Recycled Materials Association (ReMA), has urged an international discussion on how Europe’s new standards for recycling, reuse, and sustainable design will influence global vehicle and parts trade.
Speaking at the Bureau of International Recycling gathering in Gothenburg, Sweden, Wiener remarked, “The automotive supply chain is getting is sending us a very clear message that this is something that is impacting in the US.”
She noted that ReMA initially believed regional regulations would not affect the US, until a closer examination of the EU’s End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation (ELVR) revealed otherwise.
“We’re still trying to figure out exactly what it all means but there are some very important aspects of it that are triggering or accelerating a global redesign of the automotive supply chain around issues of circularity, recycled content, disassembling and dismantling traceability and materials recovery,” Wiener explained.
Wiener’s comments followed a presentation by Juia Ettinger, secretary general of Recycling Europe, who highlighted the ELVR’s four key goals: eco-design, recycled content, collection, and treatment. Ettinger emphasized recycled content as the most important.
Read Also: AI Platform Helps Recycling Plants Detect Quality Issues Faster
“Targets for plastics in cars are 15% within six years and 25% within 10 years,” Ettinger stated. “Out of those, 20% has to come from an old ELV – the so-called closed loop requirements.”
She noted these principles resemble existing regulations for packaging and single-use plastics. However, due to concerns about the quality and recycled nature of plastics entering Europe, the European Commission has included a “mirror clause” in the ELV law.
This clause mandates that recycled materials from outside the EU must have been treated in an equivalent way to the required practice in Europe.
The ELV Regulation also requires certain parts to be removed manually and then placed on the manufacturing or reuse market. However, Ettinger welcomed a clause nullifying this removal requirement if costs are disproportionate.
Additionally, she mentioned the Commission is reviewing recycled content targets for steel, aluminium and critical raw materials in new products. “There is a big push, which we at Recycling Europe never expected. We never actually advocated for recycled content for metals,” Ettinger said.