END OF LIFE VEHICLES (ELV) REGULATIONS

The EC ELV Directive aims to reduce the amount of waste from vehicles (cars and vans) when they are finally scrapped. In particular, it includes tightened environmental standards for vehicle treatment sites, requiring that last owners must be able to dispose of their vehicles free of charge from 2007.

The UK has transposed the Directive through its ELV Regulations 2003 and 2005.

The 2003 Regulations put in place most of the requirements of the Directive, including the improved standards for vehicle treatment sites, some new technical standards that apply to new vehicles and the establishment of a Certificate of Destruction (CoD) system.

The remaining provisions were the subject of the 2005 Regulations that came into effect in March 2005. These regulations set out the requirements for vehicle producers to have available networks of facilities where last owners of their brands of vehicles may take them for treatment at the end of their lives. These facilities are required to provide this service free of charge from 1 January 2007 (where vehicles are largely complete and have not had extra waste added).