End-of-life vehicle recycling 🚗: We explain how end-of-life vehicle recycling in Australia works. In addition, we provide you with everything you need to know about ELV recycling.
Through the years, car ownership in Australia has significantly increased. According to Frost, Australia is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8% from 2023 to 2030. The country currently ranks second in the world in vehicle ownership, with 749 vehicles per 1,000 people. Surprisingly, it surpasses other major vehicle market countries such as Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Correspondingly, this means that more vehicles mean more vehicle waste.
In Australia, approximately five per cent of our 20.7-million vehicle fleet reaches its end of life annually. That’s around 850,000 vehicles producing some 1.36 million tonnes of waste each year.
Whilst the existing dismantling industry recovers roughly 70 per cent of materials (largely steel and other metals), an estimated 408,000 tonnes of plastics, glass, rubber and textiles still end up in landfills.
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Beyond sheer volume, these end-of-life vehicles pose environmental hazards. Oils, brake fluids and refrigerants can leach into soil and waterways if not properly captured and treated. To tackle this growing waste problem, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and the Motor Trades Association of Australia (MTAA) teamed up under the National Product Stewardship Investment Fund and worked on an extensive report, which we will cover more of below.
End-of-life vehicle recycling: FCAI/MTAA laying the Groundwork
Late in 2021, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and the Motor Trades Association of Australia (MTAA) secured a $1 million Commonwealth grant under the National Product Stewardship Investment Fund. Their goal was to conduct one of the most comprehensive ELV studies in Australia, involving more than 1,000 pages of research, three workshops in Sydney and Melbourne, over 30 stakeholder site visits and involvement of more than 70 government and industry experts.
This extensive work mapped our current decommissioning processes, analysed international best practice and examined industry capacity, capability and technology levels.
Understanding the ELV Landscape
Australia’s dismantling and recycling sector is dominated by some 1,465 mainly small to medium businesses. These businesses excel at salvaging reusable parts and metals but lack viable options for non-metal materials.
So, with no domestic vehicle manufacturing to enforce design-for-disassembly, and considerable distance from global reprocessing hubs driving up transport costs, our industry faces a unique set of challenges: fragmentation, economic viability hurdles for plastics and composites and a complex material mix in modern vehicles.
The need for a national product-stewardship scheme
The Case for Co-Regulation
Global experience shows that Authorised Collection Facilities (ACFs), Authorised Treatment Facilities (ATFs) and digital Certificates of Destruction (CoDs) are essential to ensure traceability, accountability and high material-recovery standards. With this information, FCAI and MTAA recommend a co-regulated, nationally consistent product-stewardship scheme covering passenger cars, SUVs and light commercial vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes, marrying these proven elements with Australia’s specific industry structure and geography.
Five Phases of Foundational Work
- Defining the ELV Landscape: Mapping supply chains, current certification and operational practices.
- Industry Capacity & Capability: Assessing current collection, sorting, reuse and reprocessing technologies.
- Proof-of-Concept Scheme Design: Field research on how ACF/ATF concepts could operate here, including standards, quality assurance and material-revenue flows.
- Final Framework Development: Refining scope, purpose and participants for a national scheme.
- Business Plan & Recommendations: Confirming actions, funding models and pilot approaches.
This phased approach has provided a robust starting point for government and industry to collaborate on implementing an ELV stewardship scheme in Australia
Benefits of strengthened end-of-life vehicle recycling
A cohesive product-stewardship program for end-of-life vehicle recycling delivers powerful environmental, social and economic benefits all at once. Environmentally, it means every car that comes through an Authorised Collection Facility is systematically depolluted. Oils, refrigerants and batteries are removed safely and then dismantled under strict protocols that recover far more plastics, glass and rubber than today’s metal-centric model allows.
By standardising these processes, we not only keep hazardous fluids out of soil and waterways but also capture materials that would otherwise be lost to landfill.
On the social side, introducing clear Certificates of Destruction fosters public confidence: when drivers hand over their old vehicle, they receive a digital receipt confirming every step of its journey from drop-off to final recycling. This traceability strengthens the automotive sector’s ESG credentials, reassures communities of the absence of illegally dumped waste, and helps recyclers build a stronger “social licence” to operate.
Economically, the scheme effectively sparks new growth and job creation. As small dismantlers upgrade to meet higher standards, they’ll gain training in advanced separation techniques. They will also tap into emerging markets for recycled plastics, composites and other non-metal streams. Regional processing hubs, focused on plastics sorting, rubber devulcanisation and composite recovery, will reduce reliance on costly overseas re-processors, keeping more value in the Australian economy.
In addition, framed within a circular-economy ethos, this strengthened vehicle recycling framework transforms end-of-life cars from waste problems into feedstocks for local manufacturers. It’s a blueprint for reducing our dependence on virgin resources, cutting transport emissions, and driving sustainable industry development, ensuring Australia’s vehicle recycling sector thrives for decades to come.
Australia’s unique end-of-life vehicle recycling hurdles and how to overcome them
Our industry’s fragmentation, dominated by small operators, limits the scale and capital available for investment in state-of-the-art recycling technologies. Additionally, the great distances between dismantlers and international reprocessing centres inflate transport costs, making non-metal recycling economically challenging. Meanwhile, modern vehicles’ complex assemblage of metals, electronics, textiles and composites demands sophisticated separation systems that the current sector is not fully equipped to provide.
To address these issues, the proposed scheme will:
- Pool Resources: Coordinate funding and technical support so small businesses can upgrade their facilities.
- Invest in Local Processing: Establish regional hubs for plastics sorting, rubber devulcanisation and composite separation to cut transport burdens.
- Leverage OEM Partnerships: Engage with vehicle manufacturers for data sharing and design-for-disassembly guidelines, enabling more efficient reuse of parts and materials.
Roadmap: next steps toward implementation
The FCAI/MTAA report outlines critical actions to transition from design to delivery:
- National Standards & Targets: Set clear operating protocols and material-recovery benchmarks for metals, plastics, glass, rubber and textiles.
- Establish a Stewardship Body: Create an independent authority to license ACFs/ATFs, issue CoDs and collect performance data.
- Research & Pilots: Fund R&D into cutting-edge recycling technologies and pilot projects to validate business models for non-metal material recovery.
- Design Funding Models: Explore cost-sharing structures, manufacturer contributions, user-fees and government grants, to sustainably finance scheme operations.
- Execute Pilot Programs: Trial CoD delivery mechanisms and OEM data-sharing frameworks within existing industry and government systems, ensuring adaptability and stakeholder buy-in.
Conclusion: Driving Toward a Circular Future
By embracing a nationally consistent, co-regulated end-of-life vehicle recycling framework, Australia has the opportunity to turn hundreds of thousands of retired cars each year into valuable resources, not refuse.
A well-designed product-stewardship scheme will ensure every end-of-life vehicle’s depollution, dismantling and recycling to the fullest extent. As a result, this can maximise resource recovery, minimise landfill volumes and align Australia with global best practice.
As we move forward, collaboration between government, industry, original equipment manufacturers and recyclers will be key to building a sustainable, circular ELV economy that benefits our environment, society and economy for generations to come.
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