One hundred sixty million vehicles are on the road in Europe: what to do with them when they will reach the end of their life?
8 to 9 million cars scrapped every year in Europe
The European Commission has looked into the rebuilt title of cars. If the majority of the components of a car are recycled today, the challenge concerns the remaining quarter, essentially composed of plastics.
Eight to nine million cars are scrapped each year in Europe. End-of-life care represents, on average, a ton of materials to be scrapped, or even more, as they take on more and more weight to meet safety standards and consumer demand for equipment. This tonne is made up of 75% metals, which are then recycled or reused in other sectors; the remaining 25% are plastics. Over the years, this proportion tends to increase because they make it possible to contain or reduce the overall weight of the car with the aim of lowering consumption.
Unlike metals, recycling plastics is difficult and expensive; it is often more profitable to put them in landfills, which is harmful to the environment. Since 2005, following a European directive, car manufacturers have therefore had an obligation to produce cars of which 85% of the weight is recoverable and reusable. This recovery and reuse/recycling targets must increase to 95% and 85% respectively in 2015, which means that the volume of waste to be disposed of by landfill will be less than 5%.
The production and assembly of parts are now thought out and designed to facilitate the work of the VHU sector (end-of-life vehicle). The car of tomorrow will be a real Lego to disassemble.to summarize
One hundred sixty million vehicles are on the road in Europe: what to do with them when they reach the end of their life?