Car Disposal (ELV)
What is an End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV)?

An ELV is any vehicle that has come to the end of its useful life.

ELV’s can be divided into two categories:

1. Natural ELV's
This refers to a vehicle that has come to the end of its life due to natural wear and tear (usually vehicles over ten years old). This type of ELV will simply be de-polluted and then recycled for scrap metal.

• natural ELV - scrapped due to wear and tear
• abandoned end-of-life vehicle

2. Premature ELV’s:
This type of ELV refers to those vehicles that have come to the end of their life for unnatural reasons such as accident, fire, flood or vandalism damage. However, rather than be scrapped, the insurance companies will categorise and approve for these vehicles to be either dismantled for spare parts only or sold complete as damaged-repairable salvage.

• premature ELV - to be dismantled for spare parts
• premature ELV - to be re-sold as repairable

What is the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive?

In the early 1990’s, the European Parliament specifically targeted end-of-life vehicles as a “...priority waste-stream” for two significant reasons:

1. Because of concerns regarding the increasing amount of ‘waste’ produced during the disposal process of ELV’s, and
The generally poor environmental practices of the traditional car breakers and scrap yards that were responsible for the disposal of the majority of all ELV’s.

2. So to regulate this waste-stream, the first version of a law regarding ELV disposal emerged in 1997 and became a European Directive in October 2000. It was finally adopted as a UK law on the 21st April 2002.

What is vehicle de-pollution?

Vehicle de-pollution is the newly developed treatment process that all end-of-life vehicles must undertake if they are to achieve the required levels of materials recycling and recovery stipulated by the ELV Directive.

The process basically involves two main functions:

1. The recovery of all positive components and fluids that may be recycled and re-used (e.g. fuels, oils, coolants, ferrous and non-ferrous metal components, etc.)

2. The removal of all those negative elements of a vehicle that are potentially harmful to the environment (e.g. tyres, mercury switches, airbags, etc).

So, no matter whether vehicles arrive at our Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF) via local authorities, insurance companies or the general public, you can rest assured that they will be treated with best practice and in accordance with UK legislation.