Vehicle history and data expert Cartell.ie and Car Sales Platform CarsIreland.ie has reported on the success of End-of-Life Vehicle Regulations.

The original Waste Management (End-of-Life Vehicles) Regulations 2006 (SI 282 of 2006) which were replaced in 2014, by the European Union (End-of-Life Vehicles) Regulations 2014 (S.I. No. 281/2014). Since the inception of the End-of-life regime, 775,000 vehicles have been disposed of within the remit of the Regulations. This amounts to over 1 million tonnes of waste and is the equivalent of 1,000 cars per week disposed.

The Regulations were originally enacted under an EU directive. As originally stated, the aim of the Regulations was to facilitate the achievement of the 85% reuse/recovery with 80% reuse/recycling by average weight per vehicle and year from their commencement and 95% reuse/recovery with 85% reuse/recycling by average weight per vehicle and year by 1st January 2015.

The current total number of vehicles, up to the end of April 2021, on the Department of Transport National Vehicle and Drivers File (NVDF) which have been registered as End-of-Life is 774,729 – up from 772,850 the previous week – an increase of 1879 over a seven-day-period at the end of April.

An additional 390,876 vehicles have been issued as Scrapped on the NVDF giving a total of over 1 million vehicles recorded as either End-of-Life or Scrapped (1,165,605).

The rate of vehicles going End-of-Life appears to be increasing: while the average rate of disposal is 1,000 cars per week over the lifetime of the Regulations the total number disposed of in the week considered for the study, the last week of April, was 1,879, and, in the last week in March, the total disposed of amounted to 2,013 vehicles – both weeks well above the average.

Jeff Aherne, Innovation Lead, Cartell.ie commented, “In terms of waste management these Regulations have resulted in the disposal of an estimated 1 million tonnes of old vehicles: this is a significant amount of waste within the context of environmental protection. The other significant thing comes with the reporting of these vehicles as End-of-Life meaning they cannot return to the road – from a road safety perspective this is important. Cartell reports can identify if a vehicle is scrapped or End-of-Life just in case unscrupulous individuals try and use a cloned vehicle.”