ELVES has announced that it has been awarded Green Enterprise funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for ‘Electric Loops’. This project will investigate the reuse and recycling potential of electric vehicles, as a Circular Economy initiative.

Under the Electric Loops project, an electric vehicle will be dismantled and its parts evaluated to understand their value for reuse and recycling, helping to create a future circular economy. The project will help Authorised Treatment Facilities (ATFs) and metal recyclers, to create the reuse and recycling avenues needed, for the End-of-life Vehicles of the future.

Fiacra Quinn, CEO of ELVES, said, “ELVES is very pleased to have been successful in our application to the EPA’s Green Enterprise Programme for our Electric Loops project. We are expecting the volume of electric vehicles coming to end-of-life, to significantly increase, and our ELV recycling industry needs to be prepared for this change.  This project will provide important data, enabling the recycling industry to capture the value in the recycling of these vehicles.  It will also help Irish authorities to report on the levels of reuse and recycling undertaken.” 
 
The Electric Loops project is a natural development for ELVES, the compliance scheme for End-of-Life Vehicles. Since 2018, ELVES has operated its Electric ELVES programme, that provides take back and recycling of electric vehicle batteries, as well as training and information support on the handling of electric and hybrid vehicles.

The Electric Loops project will start in February 2023 and run till late 2024. The EPA Green Enterprise programme is a Government of Ireland initiative, funded by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.