Warning to US recyclers over new ELV regulations in Europe

New EU regulations for end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) will have far-reaching implications for auto recyclers in the United States, an authoritative voice in global recycling has warned.

Robin Wiener, president of the US Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) has called for a global conversation on how European requirements for recycled content, reuse and circular design will impact world trade in vehicles and parts.

Wiener told the Bureau of International Recycling convention in Gothenburg, Sweden: ‘The automotive supply chain is getting is sending us a very clear message that this is something that is impacting in the US.’

Deep dive

She said ReMA had assumed that regulations passed in one region would not affect the US – until it started a ‘deep dive’ into the EU End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation (ELVR) which comes into force later in the year.

‘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 was addressing BIR’s International Environment Council session and spoke after Juia Ettinger, secretary general of Recycling Europe (formerly EuRIC), set out the four main objectives of the ELVR: eco-design, recycled content, collection and treatment. She believed recycled content was the most important.

Mirror clause

‘Targets for plastics in cars are 15% within six years and 25% within 10 years,’ Ettinger said. ‘Out of those, 20% has to come from an old ELV – the so-called closed loop requirements.’

She explained the principles were similar to those already in place for packaging and single-use plastics. However, because of uncertainty over the quality and recycled nature of plastics coming into Europe, the European Commission has put a ‘mirror clause’ into the ELV law.

It means that recycled material imported from countries outside of the EU have to have been treated in an equivalent way to the required practice in Europe.

Reuse shift

Under the ELV Regulation, some parts have 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. ‘This was, I would say, a little win for Recycling Europe.’

She also reported that the Commission was 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.’