Lesson 1: End-of-life vehicles management in circular economy

The automotive industry is responsible for a large share of resource consumption, especially steel, aluminum, plastic, rubber, and glass, among others.
The industry generates about five percent of industrial waste in the entire world, and with increasing demand for electric vehicles (EVs), battery material consumption grows significantly.
Circularity is the key in order to tackle the environmental challenges by maximizing the value retention throughout the entire life cycle of products and materials.
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the implementation of circular business practices could save to 45% of carbon emissions and 90% of wasted materials. More than that, by implementing a data-driven “R-strategy” (reuse, remanufacturing, recycling), a circular economy does not only help enterprises meet their sustainability goals but also generate new business opportunities for the industry.
END-OF-LIFE VEHICLES are vehicles that have ended their useful life and are processed as waste. In practice, they are dismembered, shredded or otherwise disposed of. During the dismantling phase, spare parts of the vehicle may be separated and reused for repairing vehicles in service (reuse operation). The rest of the dismantled vehicle will undergo recycling operations, be used for producing energy (energy recovery operation) or finally disposed.

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