End-of-life Vehicles

- Overview -

In Germany some 3.5 million cars a year are taken out of service. Most of them are sent for recycling or scrap. In view of the large amounts of various metals they contain, end-of-life cars are available source of (secondary) raw materials. The plastics and glass used in cars can also be recovered.

Since April 1998 the disposal of old cars has been regulated by the "End-of-life Vehicles Ordinance".

This specifies that anyone wanting to get rid of an old car is required to hand it over to a recognised recycling business or a recognised reception point. He then received a recycling certificate which he had to submit to the registration authority when deregistering the car.

In addition, the manufacturers and importers gave a voluntary undertaking that they would take back free of charge from the last owner all vehicles newly licensed after the entry into force of the End-of-life Cars Ordinance (1 April 1998), up to a maximum age of 12 years.

Since April 1998 a nationwide return network consisting of around 15,000 reception points, over 1000 recycling businesses and 65 shredder plants came into being.

However, there is a new situation since July 2002, which is due to the EC Directive on end-of-life vehicles (2000/53/EC), that came into force in October 2000. It formed the basis for the end-of-life vehicle disposal in Germany on a harmonised Europe-wide basis.

This directive was implemented by an Act on the Disposal of end-of-life vehicles, which came into force in Germany on 1 July 2002.

The law contains the following basic provisions:
The last holders of passenger vehicles or light commercial vehicles have the possibility to return old vehicles to manufacturers and importers free of cost. For vehicles that have already been placed on the market the law is applicable from January 2007. It is directly applicable to vehicles that were placed on the market after the law entered into force on 1 July 2002.

Manufacturers and importers are obligated to collect end-of-life vehicles. They are required to set up a nationwide collection system or to commission a third party to do so.

End-of-life vehicles that do not contain essential components or materials as well as vehicles which have not been registered in Germany for at least one month prior to retirement are exempt from the cost-free collection. The economic operators – i. e. manufacturers, importers, waste management sector – have to ensure jointly that from 2006 at least 85 per cent by average weight of an end-of-life vehicle are recovered and at least 80 per cent are recycled or reused. From 2015 the targets are to be increased to 95 per cent (recovery) and 85 per cent (recycling, reuse).

Dismantlers have to make sure that from 2006 10 per cent by weight per vehicle collected will be recycled. Based on the overall weight of end-of-life vehicles collected, shredder facilities have to recycle at least 5 per cent of the shredder wastes (shredder light fraction for the most part) from that date on. As of 2015 this quota is to be increased by 15 per cent by weight per vehicle, 5 per cent of which have to be recycled.

From 1 July 2003 it is in principle prohibited to place vehicles and components on the market that contain the heavy metals cadmium, mercury, lead and hexavalent chromium. The Directive on end-of-life vehicles defines exceptions in Annex II, which is to be applied directly.

The environmental standards already existing for the treatment and the recovery of end-of-life vehicles by authorised facilities will be further improved according to EU targets. The requirements for the inspection of facilities by experts will be made more concrete.

By expanding operators' and experts' obligations to report to the monitoring authorities, the implementation is facilitated considerably for the competent "Länder" authorities.

If a vehicle is finally retired and disposed of, a certificate of destruction from the dismantling facility has to be presented to the registration authority. If the vehicle is not disposed of, this has to be explained accordingly. A formal declaration of whereabouts, which was required before, is no longer necessary.

According to commercial law reserves have to be formed on account of cost free collection of end-of-life vehicles. As an alternative for vehicles already placed on the market, reserves may be formed within the framework of a balance sheet aid in such a way that the result is equal to an accumulation of instalments.

The reserves for vehicles that have already been placed on the market have to be recognised under fiscal law and have to be accumulated until 2007.