Over the past few years, a number of new environmental directives have come out mainly for the automotive and electronics industries, one of which is
ELV Directive . This is a requirement of the situation. The purpose of these directives is to reduce the amount of toxic materials entering the environment by limiting the amount of certain toxic substances allowed in a manufactured product and providing for the recyclability of the manufactured product. The hazardous waste regulations apply to end-of-life vehicles and affect how they should be handled and dealt with when they are processed.
The End of Life Vehicles (ELV) Directive aims to reduce the amount of waste produced from vehicles when they are scrapped. The directive requires ELV treatment sites to meet stricter environmental standards. It also sets higher reuse, recycling and recovery targets and limits the use of hazardous substances in both new vehicles and replacement vehicle parts. Many of the directive's requirements apply to producers of new vehicles. The directive covers aspects along the life cycle of a vehicle as well as aspects related to treatment operations. As such it aims at preventing the use of certain heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, mercury and hexavalent chromium, collection of vehicles at suitable treatment facilities, de-pollution of fluids and specific components, coding and/or information on parts and components, ensuring information for consumers and treatment organizations and achieving reuse, recycling and recovery performance targets. With these targets set, the directive involves four major stakeholders, the producer, the recycling industry, the last holder and the authorities.
