Recycling

Recycling of vehicles, a complex challenge

Some 8 million vehicles are recycled annually in the EU-15 countries. The actual waste from those "end-of-life vehicles" (ELV) accounts only for about 1% of total waste across the EU Member States. This is due to the fact that parts are reused and a high content of the materials is recycled or recovered.
Car recycling was introduced in the late 1950s and is a profitable business carried out by small and medium sized businesses all over Europe. The ELV directive 2000/53/EC published in 2000 defined new standards for recycling and product design. The automotive industry fully supports the idea of sustainable utilisation of end-of-life vehicles. However, due to the variety of materials and substances used in modern vehicles, recycling has become a major challenge.
In Poland, the obligation of the end-of-life vehicles is executed by the the Act of 20th January 2005 on Recycling End-of-Life Vehicles (Journal of Laws No 25, item 202, as amended).