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End-of-life vehicles: EU Parliament votes in favour of lower recyclate quotas for plastics

The European Parliament's (EP) report on the new End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) regulation contains a number of changes to the European Commission's proposal.
 

The report on the regulation on circular economy requirements for the design and disposal of end-of-life vehicles contains the EP's position at first reading. The changes made to the Commission proposal concern, among other things, the scope of the regulation, the criteria for determining an end-of-life vehicle and the recyclate quotas for plastics set out in the Commission draft. The aim of the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive is to increase the proportion of recycled plastics in vehicles. ‘To ensure that the targets are reasonable and realistic, the rapporteurs propose adjusting them to reflect what is feasible for industry,’ the report states. Accordingly, in the future all vehicles should contain 20 per cent recycled plastic, rather than 25 per cent as proposed by the European Commission. To meet the quota, it should now be possible to obtain recycled plastics from both pre-consumer and post-consumer plastic waste, including bio-based plastic. In its draft report, the EP has reduced the target for the closed-loop recycled content to be obtained from plastics from end-of-life vehicles from 25 to 15 per cent. The Commission is then to define a method for calculating and verifying the recyclate content of plastics in a delegated act, taking into account ‘the best available recycling technology, including chemical recycling,’ the EP report says. When examining the detection methods for recycled plastic, solutions for digital product passports should also be taken into account. In addition, the feasibility of the targets for plastics is to be reviewed by an impact assessment based on the technology, availability and quality of recycled plastic.
 
Sources:

  • European Parliament (29.1.2025)
  • Photo: © Documerica / Unsplash (symbolic image)

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