Australia has an extensive motor vehicle dismantling and recycling industry. The industry is based on many small to medium businesses and is largely built around the economic recovery of useable parts and recyclable metals from end-of-life motor vehicles. However, thousands of tonnes of largely non-metal materials are also sent to landfill annually. This is because of a lack of technically feasible and economically viable processing options being readily available to dismantlers and recyclers.
This comprehensive end-of-life motor vehicle study by the Federal Chamber of Automotive (FCAI) and Motor Trades Association of Australia (MTAA) represents one of the largest motor vehicle studies of its type undertaken in Australia. It has identified options for a potential product stewardship scheme to boost end-of-life vehicle material recovery rates, avoid inter-state leakage of end-of-life vehicles and importantly, reduce vehicle waste destined for landfill. The FCAI and MTAA propose to build on the work completed to date and collaborate with all levels of government and industry stakeholders to make stewardship for end-of-life motor vehicles a reality.
Approximately five per cent of motor vehicles in Australia reach their end-of-life each year. This represents 850,000 individual vehicles and consists of vehicles written-off in accidents and vehicles that have reached the end of their operating lives. This accounts for approximately 1.36 million tonnes of waste. The industry currently recovers some 70 per cent of this waste with the balance destined primarily to landfill.
Read the full study including learnings and next steps in the document below.