The producer organization Auto Recycling Netherlands (ARN) meets the legal obligations for extended producer responsibility (EPR) for end-of-life vehicles. The ILT sees room for ARN to show more ambition in recycling cars that fall outside the producer organization. This is noted by the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) in a report following an investigation at ARN.
The ILT supervises organizations that implement the EPR. The inspectorate wanted to gain more insight into the recycling figures that ARN reports each year and check whether it complies with the legal obligations for the EPR.
ARN Meets Obligations
The ILT finds that ARN complies with the applicable laws and regulations. For example, ARN meets the requirement to recycle or incinerate 95% of the waste materials from end-of-life vehicles with energy recovery.
The producer organization has a complete picture of the cars being brought to market and which cars are being removed from the market for dismantling. For other producer organizations, it often takes a lot of time for proper registration and monitoring of the amount of waste generated. According to the ILT, ARN is an exception in this regard.
ARN has not yet published the owners and members of the organization. ARN has indicated that it will resolve this quickly.
Room for Ambition
The ILT sees room for ARN to show more ambition in recycling end-of-life vehicles, especially regarding the number of end-of-life vehicles that are currently not being processed through the ARN system. Of the 159,000 end-of-life vehicles in the Netherlands in 2023, 26,000 vehicles were not dismantled through ARN. Processing more end-of-life vehicles through the ARN system leads to better visibility of the waste streams generated and to a higher quality of processing.
The recycling results are largely based on shredder tests that were last conducted 10 years ago. In shredder tests, end-of-life vehicles are destroyed, and the shredded pieces of the vehicle are checked to see if they meet safety and quality requirements. This is while the composition of cars has changed over the last 10 years. Although ARN has indicated that new shredder tests will take place this year, there is no fixed period or system to determine when to hold new shredder tests. ARN could also periodically audit the processors of the waste streams to determine whether the recycling results match the reports of these companies. The producer organization can, based on its knowledge, influence, and available resources, take extra steps to further stimulate the circularity of the automotive sector in the Netherlands.
Supervision of EPR
The EPR ensures that companies that make products are also responsible for collecting and reusing the waste from those products. The ILT supervises compliance with these EPR rules. The EPR focuses not only on cleaning up and using waste as raw material. It increasingly concerns making products that last longer, can be repaired more easily, or whose waste can be more easily reused as raw material for the same or another product.