Page 6 from: Out now: issue 5!

a u t h o r Kirstin Linnenkoper

6

‘I never dreamt we would
exceed 97% car recycling’
Belgium is one of the countries currently topping the global automotive recycling

market. a big name in the industry is Febelauto, which celebrated its 20th birth-

day this summer. Chairman Catherine Lenaerts talks about the non-profit group’s

recent victories and future challenges.

competitor’s PST plant – or even to
ARN’s PST plant in Tiel. This makes
PST a competitive factor in Belgium
and that is why we have a lot of PST
plants, all functioning in their own way,
catering to different applications.’

How do you feel about
cars tHat are ‘lost’ to tHe
recycling sector?
‘We calculate that, every year, there
are between 35 000 and 65 000 used
cars in Belgium that are untraceable.
This is partly because the licence plate
is linked to the person owning the car,
not the vehicle itself. It’s unclear

How does febelauto
operate?
‘We collected more than 142 000 used
cars for recycling in 2018, which was
18% more than the previous year.
Febelauto doesn’t own recycling
plants: our recycling partners are all
independent companies with
Febelauto acting as the recycling
coordinator. We currently work with
16 car shredder plants in Belgium and
one in the Netherlands.’

wHat Have been tHe biggest
milestones in febelauto’s
two-decade existence?
‘The journey has been difficult. When I
started 17 years ago, we had just
reached a 77% recycling target in
Belgium and we had a total of 15 offi-
cially recognised treatment facilities. I
wasn’t at all sure we would even meet
the mandatory target of 85% recycling
for 2006. I never dreamt that by that
time we would actually exceed 97%
(including 3.8% energy recovery)
thanks to 116 official treatment facili-
ties. Naturally, these last few percent-
ages are the hardest.’

wHat do you attribute to
febelauto’s success?
‘Our recipe for success is that since
the beginning we have involved all
parties in the life cycle of vehicles. For
20 years now our board representa-
tives have been a true reflection of

the industry: car importers, workshop
and dismantling specialists, suppliers,
local authority figures and, of course,
the car recyclers themselves. This has
resulted in pragmatic rules and prac-
tices that are widely supported.’

do you tHink sucH strong
growtH can be maintained
in tHe coming years?
‘I am rather confident that there will
be growth: Febalauto will continue its
efforts with all its recycling partners to
recover as many end-of-life vehicles as
we possibly can. I have also seen the
effect of the low emission zones in
some big Belgian cities. People are
selling their old cars because they
cannot enter the city centre anymore –
and this development will become
more visible in the coming years. This
will boost car recycling somewhat.
Recyclers in our network would be
very pleased because their shredder
plants have the capacity to treat many
more vehicles. For recyclers it’s sim-
ple: the greater the volume, the bet-
ter.’

wHat sHape are tHe cars in
tHat febelauto collects for
recycling?
‘That varies. Cars coming from import-
ers receive a warm welcome from the
recycling industry as these are mostly
complete. In other situations, there
may be serious damage. In any case,

parts such as catalytic converters
remain valuable. That alone makes
vehicles financially interesting to recy-
cle.’

wHat are tHe cars recycled
into?
‘As much of the recycled materials are
metals, they serve as secondary raw
materials. Today, metal production in
Belgium is based on more than 50%
recycled content. If you think about it,
your fridge could once have been a
car. The same goes for new vehicles:
they contain a lot of recycled metal.
But I’d like to point out that Febelauto
also recycles the plastics from car inte-
riors into feedstock for new products.
Did you know that we even recover
the sand from the carpets?’

How Have cars cHanged
over tHe years from a
material point of view?
‘We recently conducted a study on
this. The results overall were that
there are now more different types of
plastic used in a car, which makes
recycling more complex, adding to
the costs. At the same time, we see
the proportion of non-ferrous metals
growing and this boosts the value of
modern cars.’

please sHed some ligHt on
tHe post-sHredder tecHno-
logy in your Home market.
‘The post-shredder residue recycling
plants account for the last 15% or so of
the annual recycling rate. We do not
own our own post-shredder technolo-
gy (PST) plant in the way the Dutch
recycling service company ARN does.
In Belgium, leading car recyclers devel-
oped them themselves. If this is not
the case, vehicles may be sent to a

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