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Leading car recycler
ARN turns to e-mobility
The fast-evolving automotive market is sending ripples of change downstream.

Someone witnessing this first-hand is Ingrid Niessing, ceo of the Dutch national

network of car dismantling companies ARN. ‘We currently cater to the complete

end-of-life vehicle market in the Netherlands.’ she says. Having been at the wheel

of the organisation for over 12 years, she knows the cars we drive today aren’t

the cars that were made 20 years ago. Niessing takes a moment with us to set out

what this means for recyclers of the future.

infrastructure for charging electric cars
is improving, though a lot is yet
unclear on how they will be dealt with
when the spark runs out. Who will be
responsible? And for what part of the
recycling process? I hear some auto-
motive brands want to retain owner-
ship of their batteries throughout the
EV lifecycle. Does that mean it will
have a dedicated take-back pro-
gramme? Or will the recycling industry
need to construct dedicated EV recy-
cling hubs? If so, what’s the best loca-
tion to build them? The Netherlands is
a small, densely populated country so
I doubt it would be here. Perhaps
Germany? We have a lot of figuring
out to do.’

DO YOU THINK THERE IS STILL
ROOM TO UPGRADE RECYCLING
TECHNOLOGY?
‘Certainly when it comes to the next
generation of vehicles, specifically EVs
and similar products like e-scooters.
There are also so many buttons, sen-

HOW DO YOU VIEW THE CAR
RECYCLING MARKET IN THE
NETHERLANDS?
‘I think we have created a solid car
recycling infrastructure that serves as
an example for other countries in
Europe. ARN has achieved a 95%+
recycling rate for end-of-life vehicles
and setting up a post-shredder resi-
due (PST) facility in the city of Tiel
was instrumental in that. It’s a result
me and my team are proud of. On
the other hand, we are looking ahead
and don’t want to feel too comfort-
able by buying into the illusion that
our work is done. There is always an
opportunity to do better, to be more
efficient.’

HOW MANY VEHICLES WERE
RECYCLED IN 2021?
‘We treat about 180 000 to 195 000
vehicles every year. There are some
minor ups and downs but, on the
whole, the figure has been stable for a
decade. Besides that, we operate
SRN, which is fully dedicated to scoot-
er recycling. We handle around
25 000 of those per annum.’

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE
ARN’S BIGGEST MILESTONES SO
FAR?
‘That’s hard to answer, to be honest.
Ultimately, I am glad we have been
able to take the car dismantling and
recycling sector to the next level. At
the start of our journey, we installed
about 220 advanced depollution sys-
tems at workshops across the country
to ensure all liquids could be safely
removed. The arrival in 2011 of the
PST site, which has a line consisting of
200 different machines, was another
highlight. It’s a unique facility to this
day, with only a handful of similar
“one stop shop” car recycling sites in
existence. We also helped provide
recycling training to ensure people in
the sector are up-to-date with how to
deal with the various tools, parts and
components. Dutch dismantlers now
have a wealth of knowledge and
everything seems to be running
smoothly without much interference
from us.’

WHAT’S YOUR VISION FOR ARN
FROM NOW ON?
‘We’ve been very busy carving out a

future-proof operational strategy. I
decided it was best to return the
focus to our core business so we sold
ARN’s post-shredder residue plant.
We also sold the depollution systems,
which were technically still owned by
us, to the dismantling partners who
operate them. The company also shed
its advisory division (providing con-
sulting services) and launched an
Innovation Unit last year to prepare
for the uptake in e-mobility and the
inclusion of modern-day materials
such as composites. The way I see it, it
may be too tempting to celebrate
milestones from the past. The ques-
tion should always be: “What will work
tomorrow – and the day after that?”
That’s how you survive.’

DID THE PANDEMIC HAVE A BIG
IMPACT ON YOUR DAY-TO-DAY
OPERATIONS?
‘I’m glad to say the pandemic didn’t
really affect the volume of cars com-
ing in for recycling or our operations
in general. That’s because ARN is
involved with the back-end of the
automotive market. I know new car
sales were significantly lower as we
went in and out of lockdown – both in
the Netherlands and abroad. The
long-term effects of this aren’t visible
yet. Because vehicles have an average
life cycle of around 15 to 20 years, I
doubt we will see a big difference
down the line.’

ARE THERE ANY EXCITING PROJ-
ECTS PLANNED FOR 2022?
‘We are actively investigating recy-
cling best practices for electric vehicle
(EV) batteries and are networking with
industry stakeholders, including car-
makers. The good news is that the

Ingrid Niessing: ‘We treat up to 195 000 end-of-life vehicles every year.’

A U T H O R Kirstin Linnenkoper

08-09_interview.indd 8 28-02-2022 15:56