A bird's eye view on End-of-Life Vehicles Directive in Europe: an Italian case study

The 2000/53/EC Directive in Europe sets out targets for Re-use, Recycling and Recovery of End-of-Life-of-Vehicles (ELVs). The present article analyzes the current situation of ELVs management in Europe with particular attention on Italian condition. According with Italian Trial 2006 analysis about ELVs, Reuse and Recycling rate is estimated to be about 81%. Due to the relevance of the ELVs problem, in 2008 Italian Ministry of Environment subscribed a framework agreement with competent stakeholders as carmakers, dismantlers, shredders. The main result is an industrial plan to promote (amongst other objectives) technological progress for residual waste (Automotive Shredder Residue - ASR) treatment. Our attention is focused on dismantlers: at the present time, dismantling plants constitute the first collection point for ELVs, and these are still structured as craft-type facilities. During 2009 we conducted an investigation over a number of ten Authorized Treatment Facilities (ATFs) operating in Italy in order to find out most relevant critical issues in ELVs treatment, examining the relationship between scrapping activities and Directive’s regulation. In a first phase, we found out major practices and methods through direct observations of ATFs and brief interviews to operators. The depollution and dismantling process has been examined over a period of three months looking at the process “as is”; the treatment of about 70 different ELVs has been observed and timed in detail. The survey showed the presence of significant criticalities in the process. In a second phase, we built a process simulation model on the basis of such data, aiming to include the real variability and all the uncertainties that are typical of dismantling activities.