February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Not anymore, if the European Union has anything to do with it, after warning Ireland that its failure to adopt a law on car recycling contravened European legislation.
Ireland is not alone. France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Britain, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Finland have all failed to adopt the EU’s end-of-life vehicles law as well, which should have been on their law books by April this year, the Commission said.
The law says car makers must cover the cost of tough new rules on stripping toxic parts from old vehicles and recycling most of the waste. The EU dumps an estimated 9 million tons of cars a year.
The Bureau of International Recycling has said the average cost of scrapping a car under the new rules could be between euro 50 and euro 100. However, each state must decide how to implement the laws and how much car makers will have to pay to recyclers.