Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the targets contained in article 7(2)(b) of directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicle {SEC(2007)14} {SEC(2007)15}
Date: 2007-01-16
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EC Directive, application of EU law, environmental protection, metal waste, prevention of pollution, report, waste management

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 16.01.2007 
COM(2007)5 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT 

ON THE TARGETS CONTAINED IN ARTICLE 7(2)(b) OF DIRECTIVE 2000/53/EC 
ON END-OF-LIFE VEHICLE 

{SEC(2007)14} 
{SEC(2007)15} 

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1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles (ELV Directive) sets out the following targets 
for reuse, recycling and recovery of end-of-life vehicles:  

•  85%  of  reuse  and  recovery  and  80%  of  reuse  and  recycling  by  1  January  2006  ("2006 

targets"),  

•  95%  of  reuse  and  recovery  and  85%  of  reuse  and  recycling  by  1  January  2015  ("2015 

targets"). 

The  Directive  provides  that  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  shall  re-examine  the 
2015 targets on the basis of a report of the Commission. In its report the Commission shall 
take  into  account  the  development  of  the  material  composition  of  vehicles  and  any  other 
relevant environmental aspects related to vehicles. 

Following the above mandate, the Commission has prepared this report. An essential element 
of the elaboration of this report was the assessment of the environmental, economic and social 
impacts  of  the  targets  and  alternative  options.  The  Executive  Summary  of  the  Impact 
Assessment Report, which outlines the implications of a possible modification of the targets 
set in the Directive, is contained in the Annex to this Communication. 

2. 

ASSESSMENT PROCESS 

The  impact  assessment  included  the  analysis  of  available  information  from  a  study  on  the 
costs  and  benefits  of  the  ELV  Directive  carried  out  for  the  Commission  by  an  external 
consultant,  formal  and  informal  stakeholder  consultation  in  a  multi-stakeholder  working 
group and an electronic consultation on the final report of the study, meetings with the experts 
of the Member States and in-house scenario-building of economic and environmental impacts 
of options.  

The  assessment  was  complicated  by  the  fact  that  the  ELV  Directive  is  at  an  early  stage  of 
implementation by the Member States and information as to the currently attained recycling 
and recovery levels in the Member States is limited. The first reports on the targets are due by 
the Member States in 2008 and will contain information for 2006. 

However,  information  available  to  the  Commission  has  allowed  a  fair  evaluation  of  the 
current situation and the future prospects in vehicle recovery and recycling and to conclude on 
whether or not the targets set by the ELV Directive for 2015 should be amended1. 

1 

The average weight of vehicles covered by the ELV Directive is increasing, and the data as to the actual 
ELV  weight  differ.  An  average  weight  of  a  2015  ELV  used  in  this  Report  is  1,025  kg.  However, 
weighted averages for all car manufacturers show higher weight of ELVs of approximately 1,280 kg by 
2019. If this higher weight was used, the direction of impacts would be the same, but the magnitude of 
impacts would be greater. A difference resulting from weight assumption is described in detail in the 
Impact Assessment and its Annexes. 

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3. 

OUTCOMES OF THE ASSESSMENT 

The  assessment  shows  that  the  targets  set  by  the  ELV  Directive  generate  both  substantial 
environmental and economic benefits and that repealing or reducing the targets would reduce 
these benefits. The magnitude of the benefits generated is intimately linked to eco-innovation, 
without  which  the  spreading  of  existing  technology  will  generate  low  economic  and 
environmental benefits whilst eco-innovation would lead to significantly amplified benefits. 

These benefits come from increasing the fraction of the materials (mainly certain plastics) that 
are recycled and recovered and reducing the fraction of landfilled end-of-life vehicles.  

Environmental Impacts of the Targets 

For any set of targets, metals will continue to be recycled at high levels due to the high value 
of metal. However, higher recycling targets would make it possible to increase the recycling 
of those metals which are currently lost in landfills due to poor separation of shredder residue. 

Recycling and recovery of plastics from shredder residue will be needed to meet the existing 
2015 targets. The environmental performance of recycling and recovery of different plastics 
from shredder residue is also the key determinant of the environmental impacts of recycling 
and recovery targets. 

Based  on  a  scenario  that  the  existing  2015  targets  drive  technological  progress  to  allow 
greater separation of plastics from shredder residue2, the 2015 targets can bring about several 
environmental benefits, including estimated savings between 280,000 and 980,000 tonnes of 
CO2  equivalent  a  year,  reductions  in  photochemical  oxidation,  air  acidification,  water 
pollution  and  eutrophication  and  reductions  in  waste  generated.  The  actual  environmental 
benefit will, however, depend on the technological development that the targets stimulate.  

Overall, the environmental impacts of any set of decreased targets will be worse than those of 
the current 2015 targets. The ELV Directive has triggered technological development in the 
area  of  ELV  treatment,  but  new  techniques  have  not  yet  diffused  across  the  European 
recycling market. Continued development of treatment technologies to recycle some types of 
plastics would bring substantial environmental benefits from recycling those plastics. Further 
support for the technological development is still necessary to overcome market failures, and 
changing the instruments or lowering the targets of the ELV Directive is likely to slow down 
or even stop this development, also endangering planning reliability. 

Economic Impacts of the Targets 

The eventual economic impacts of different targets will depend on the state of technological 
development in 2015. With the current targets, under best case scenario the net added value 
from the treatment of an average ELV would be between €120 and €90, with a total maximum 
value  of  the  ELV  treatment  process  for  the  estimated  number  of  ELVs  arising  in  2015  of 
approx.  €1.6  bn  annually.  Without  any  technological  development,  there  would  still  be  an 
economic gain of €55 to €80 per ELV. 

2 

An example of a PP/EPDM bumper was used, chosen because polypropylene is likely to be the polymer 
most recycled, and which has environmental impacts broadly representative of the impacts of most of 
the other polymers likely to be recycled. 

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The loss of economic benefit to the ELV treatment process from a 5% lowering of the 85% 
recycling target would be a maximum of €1.1bn a year.  

A  recovery  target  lower  than  current  95%  will  have  impacts  on  the  economic  costs  only  if 
2015 landfill prices are below €80 and €100 per tonne. Otherwise, a reduction in the recovery 
target would not make any difference to treatment costs. 

Overall, the ELV treatment under the 85% recycling and 95% recovery targets has substantial 
net economic benefits compared to lower targets. In addition, higher targets can prompt the 
development  and  commercialisation  of  already  existing  and  new  treatment  technologies 
which  would  provide  greater  resource  efficiency  by  facilitating  the  recycling  of  increased 
shares  of  waste  plastics,  and  production  of  quality  secondary  materials  at  lower  prices  than 
virgin  materials.  This  will  reduce  the  costs  of  the  EU  economy  in  terms  of  energy  costs 
(plastics  are  substituted  for  fuels  or  electricity  generation)  and  of  plastics  processing 
feedstock.  Even  with  low  innovation,  the  best  technologies  currently  available  offer  cost 
advantages over the use of current practices.  

Other options discarded at an early stage 

Some  stakeholders  proposed  options  such  as  repealing  the  recycling  target  or  replacing  the 
targets by a full or partial landfill ban. 

These  options  were  not  assessed  in  depth  as  the  assessment  of  the  2015  targets  currently 
established  in  the  Directive  was  sufficient  to  indicate  that  removal  of  the  targets  or  an 
introduction  of  a  landfill  ban  would  significantly  reduce  economic  and  environmental 
benefits, notably due to the loss of the economic and environmental benefits of recycling. In 
addition, such options would likely go beyond the task as defined in the Directive, leading to 
its  fundamental  review.  That  process  could  easily  jeopardize  the  current  progress  in 
innovation in waste management. 

4. 

MAIN ISSUE 

The  main  driver  for  amplifying  the  economic  and  environmental  benefits  of  increased 
recycling and recovery of end-of-life vehicles is eco-innovation. 

There is evidence that the ELV Directive has stimulated technological development in ELV 
treatment;  however,  the  new  waste  treatment  techniques  have  not  yet  been  sufficiently 
commercialised  in  the  European  recycling  market.  Innovation  in  technological  development 
of  advanced  technologies  for  shredder  residue  treatment  is  held  back  by  several  market 
failures, some common to industrial innovation as a whole, some relating to eco-innovation, 
and  some  specific  to  the  post-shredder  and  plastics  recyclates  markets,  enhanced  by 
uncertainty about future ELV targets.  

Maintaining the targets currently set in the Directive for the year 2015 could remedy some of 
these  market  failures  and  bring  about  relatively  important  environmental  and  economic 
benefits. The level of the targets will determine the pace of the technological progress in the 
ELV treatment sector. As the 85% recycling target would create certain markets for advanced 
post-shredder  and  polymer  recycling  technologies,  it  would  substantially  increase  R&D 
investment in new technologies. Seven years for commercialisation and further R&D and two 
years for commercial installation of the technologies are available to meet the targets by 2015. 

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R&D investment is very likely to result in further commercial development of the existing or 
technology 
the  development  of  new 
development,  the  85%  recycling  and  95%  recovery  targets  would  boost  the  diffusion  of  the 
existing most efficient technologies. 

technologies.  Even  without  further 

treatment 

Stimulation  of  R&D  in  the  waste  treatment  area  can  make  the  EU  the  world  leader  in  a 
technology market with great potential and strengthen its position as technology exporter. The 
resource  from  ELV  waste  is  growing  across  the  world  and  many  countries  are  developing 
recycling policies for ELVs. Moreover, the same technologies can be used to treat other waste 
streams, such as waste electronics. Technologies that offer products from these waste streams 
that can substitute currently used virgin materials at lower prices have a vast global potential. 

5. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The  targets  set  by  the  ELV  Directive  for  2015  can  generate  substantial  environmental  and 
economic benefits. Repealing or reducing these targets would reduce both types of benefits. 

Whilst any estimation looking 9 years into the future must involve a degree of uncertainty, the 
Commission concludes that the 85% reuse/recycling and 95% reuse/recovery targets for 2015 
are optimal both in terms of environmental and economic performance. 

These targets should remain stable in order to guarantee investment security into more cost-
efficient waste treatment technologies. Therefore, the Commission shall not propose revising 
the targets. 

However,  account  should  be  taken  of  the  central  finding  that  the  magnitude  of  the 
environmental and economic benefits generated will be intimately linked to the pace of eco-
innovation. Importantly, the dissipation of uncertainty concerning the maintaining of targets 
set  by  the  Directive  for  2015  will  in  itself  reduce  the  importance  of  the  observed  market 
imperfections  and  barriers  to  eco-innovation.  To  foster  eco-innovation  in  this  field  and  to 
further the promotion and uptake of advanced technologies, the Commission will: 

–  Co-fund  research  initiatives  under  the  European  Regional  Development  Fund  and 
Cohesion  Fund  as  well  as  fund  integrative  research  through  the  upcoming  7th  Research 
Framework Programme; 

–  Develop  projects  and  initiatives  under  the  Competitiveness  and  Innovation  Framework 

programme; 

–  Pro-actively promote innovative shredder technologies and plastic recycling. 

implementation  of 

The Commission will report back on the implementation of the ELV Directive in the Member 
States  in  2009.  This  report  will,  inter  alia,  evaluate  the  need  to  address  the  issue  of  non-
harmonised 
the 
implementation costs and the movement of goods between Member States and assess whether 
certain provisions of the Directive should come under Article 95 of the Treaty. The report will 
also  assess  the  progress  of  eco-innovation  and  will  take  into  account  related  developments 
such as the outcome of the current review of the Waste Framework Directive and the outcome 
of the CARS 21 project.  

the  Directive.  In  particular, 

it  shall  evaluate 

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