SME Chamber

Info Session: End of life vehicles Waste Management

 MEUSAC together with MEPA are organising and information session on regulations that emend existing laws on waste management for end of life vehicles. These regulations are necessary so as to bring into force the amendments to the Directive of the European Union for the year 2000 on vehicles which are no longer in use (Directive 2000/53/EC). This Directive stipulates measures for the prevention of waste from vehicles and for the renewed use, recycling, and other forms of recovery of vehicles that are no longer in use, including their components, so that the waste is separated.

 

The aim of this information session is to inform the affected parties of the obligations under the amendments. This meeting should be of particular interest to importers and agents of vehicles as well as manufacturers of materials and other related to production of vehicles.

The session will be held in Maltese:

Venue: Dar L-Ewropa, 254, St Paul's Street, Valletta
Date: Monday 5th March 2012
Time: 10.00am

 Registration is required. Contact GRTU for further information.

1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON DIRECTIVE

Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2000 on end-of life vehicles1 (ELV) as transposed by Legal Notice 99 of 2004 aims to reduce the amount of waste from end-of-life vehicles. In particular it:

1. restricts the use of certain heavy metals in the manufacture of new vehicles;

2. requires the establishment of adequate systems for the collection of ELVs;

3. states that owners must be able to have their complete ELVs accepted by these systems free of charge, even when they have a negative value provided it still contains the essential components of a vehicle, in particular the engine and the coachwork and does not contain waste which has been added to the end-of life vehicle.

4. requires producers (vehicle manufacturers or importers) to pay ‘all or a significant part' of the costs of take back for complete ELVs with a negative or no value;

5. requires that ELVs are stored (even temporarily) and can only be treated/dismantled at authorised treatment facilities, which must meet tightened environmental treatment standards;

6. introduces a Certificate of Destruction system for the removal of a scrapped vehicle from the national register; and

7. requires that certain components are marked to aid recovery and recycling, and that the relevant information is provided to aid dismantling.

In addition, Article 4 of Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles prohibits the use of lead, mercury, cadmium or hexavalent Chromium in materials and components of vehicles put on the market after 1 July 2003 other than in cases listed in Annex II under the conditions specified therein. The aim is to prevent their release into the environment, make recycling easier, and avoid the need to dispose of hazardous waste, exemption/prohibition of materials and components.

Annex II of Directive 2000/53/EC has been amended a number of times by means of Commission Decisions. However, the European Commission has recently adopted Commission Directive 2011/37/EU2 which further amends this Annex II to Directive 2000/53/EC.

Commission Directive 2011/37/EU of 30 March 2011 amending Annex II to Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on end-of-life vehicles:

1. includes new exemptions to enable the repair of vehicles with parts containing heavy metals, when in certain cases it is technically impossible to repair vehicles with spare parts other than original ones

2. prolongs the expiry dates for certain materials and components containing lead, mercury, cadmium or hexavalent chromium until the use of the prohibited substances becomes avoidable

3. includes labelling requirements for certain materials or components in accordance with Article 4(2)(b)(iv)

4. includes temporary exemptions from prohibitions for the use of lead in automotive thermoelectric materials in applications reducing CO2 emissions by recuperation of exhaust heat since it is currently technically and scientifically unavoidable

5. continues to provide exemptions without an expiry data for certain materials and components containing lead, mercury, cadmium or hexavalent, since the use of such substances in the specific materials and components listed in Annex II to that Directive is still technically or scientifically unavoidable.

6. removes existing exemptions including the removal of a general exemption from "solder in electronic circuit boards and other electric applications", to specific exemptions; the removal of the exemption for "copper in friction materials of brake linings containing more than 0.4% lead by weight; the removal of a general exemption from "electrical components which contain lead in a glass or ceramic matrix compound except glass in bulbs and glaze of spark plugs" to specific exemptions; the replacement of thick film pastes as regards to cadmium with that for batteries for electrical vehicles (cadmium).

2. NATIONAL REGULATIONS

Malta will be transposing the above listed provisions into its national regulations and would like to inform affected parties about the relevant obligations. The draft Legal Notice may be viewed on: http://www.mepa.org.mt/waste_elv.

What we can do for you

EMPLOYMENT & CONSUMER LAW

INDIVIDUAL ASSISTANCE

PRIORITY ACCESS

LOCAL ISSUES & LEGISLATION

NETWORKING EVENTS

LEGAL ADVICE

EU FUNDS AND SCHEMES

INFORMATION SESSIONS, MASTERCLASSES AND CONFERENCES

BECOME A MEMBER

The Malta Chamber of SMEs represents over 7,000 members from over 90 different sectors which in their majority are either small or medium sized companies, and such issues like the one we're experiencing right now, it's important to be united. Malta Chamber of SMEs offers a number of different services tailored to its members' individual requirements' and necessities. These range from general services offered to all members to more individual & bespoke services catered for specific requirements.

A membership with Malta Chamber of SMEs will guarantee that you are constantly updated and informed with different opportunities which will directly benefit your business and help you grow. It also entails you to a number of services which in their majority are free of charge and offered exclusively to its members (in their majority all free of charge).