HAMMEL – Metal Plant for End-of-Life Vehicle Recycling
End-of-life vehicles are a source of spare parts but also subject to recycling of the remaining material. Only in the USA approx. 12 – 15 million vehicles get…
Read moreEnd-of-Life Vehicles are automotive products that have reached the end of their useful life. Their components are now considered waste and can only be discarded or used for recycling. End-of-life vehicles generate about 7-8 million tons of waste each year in the EU. ELVs may also be referred to as "junk vehicles" or "salvage vehicles".
There are two categories of ELVs:
When end-of-life vehicles are not adequately managed, they can cause environmental problems, losing millions of tonnes of materials. The Directive on end-of-life vehicles sets clear goals for ELVs and their components. It also prohibits hazardous substances when manufacturing new vehicles except in defined exemptions when there are no alternatives.
The ELV Directive sets clear goals for their reuse, recycling, and recovery and aims for the following:
The recycling flow of ELVs differs per country, but it turns out to be almost identical in many countries, regardless of a legislative management system. The recycling process for end-of-life vehicles typically involves several steps:
Some of the specifics do differ per county; for example, in Japan, the collection of refrigerant gases and airbags is legally mandated. In the US, voluntary collection of mercury components is operated during the dismantling stage. In China, components collected at the dismantlers are often recycled as secondary products.
The parts that can't be recycled can often be reused in a different capacity, meaning that with the exemplary service, essentially none of the unwanted vehicles will go to waste.
There are several parts in end-of-life vehicles that cannot be recycled, such as:
The metal parts of cars produce a vast amount of recycled steel each year, which can be put back into manufacturing to increase efficiency. This not only helps reduce wastage and the need to mine for new steel, but it also costs less and helps keep the price of certain goods lower.
End-of-life vehicles are a source of spare parts but also subject to recycling of the remaining material. Only in the USA approx. 12 – 15 million vehicles get…
Read moreThe LIFE PST SORT project is being successfully developed and is currently entering its third demonstration stage of recyclable waste recovering from ELV…
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