Collection and management of end-of-life vehicles

No allocation scheme in producer responsibility for vehicles

The producer responsibility for vehicles is different from the other producer responsibility fields. Among others, there is no allocation scheme in connection with the collection of end-of-life vehicles.  The car importer who is subject to producer responsibility will always be responsible for ensuring that the car owner can hand over their vehicle for environmental treatment, but typically end-of-life vehicles will be handed over to an environmentally approved car breaker. Therefore, it is rarely seen that the vehicles are taken back to the producer/the importer. Since the producer is rarely involved in the collection or environmental treatment, an allocation scheme is not as relevant here as it is for waste electronics.

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Financial guarantee – is not levied

Producers and importers must provide a guarantee for the financing of management and environmental treatment of end-of-life vehicles. The magnitude of the guarantee must be based on expected costs of environmental treatment. Since the management of end-of-life vehicles – as described above – is typically ensured without the intervention of the producer, these producers are not expected to bear any costs relating to waste management, and therefore no financial guarantee is levied.

This is due to the fact that at the moment the materials contained in an end-of-life vehicle are assessed to have a value that exceeds the costs associated with waste management.

This means that even if the importer goes bankrupt or ceases to exist for other reasons the value of the material resources contained in the vehicle will be a sufficient incentive for environmental treatment and recovery, whether or not the importer is still in the market.

The car, recycling, and raw materials industries may change, and if the costs of management of end-of-life vehicles increase a financial guarantee may be levied in the future.