Is recycling old cars, instead of selling them abroad, better for the planet?

The theory always was that it was better, on the whole, to keep an old car going than to junk it and buy a new one. A new car would probably be cleaner at the exhaust but it would come with a carbon cost in terms of manufacturing, shipping and more.

Electric cars seemed to tip that scale, although there have been arguments over the carbon intensity of electric-car production, especially given that batteries need such high energy inputs and significant mining of precious metals.

With the country on a path to meeting its target of a million electric vehicles on the road by 2030, our current fleet of diesel and petrol models is going to become obsolete that much earlier.

The average age of a car on Irish roads is now close to nine years, but as the public appetite for electric propulsion grows, so internal combustion models will become much less desirable.

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What we should avoid is flogging those cars overseas to countries which have less stringent environmental laws. In 2020, the problem of highly polluting used cars being shipped to Africa was raised. According to a BBC report, of 14 million used cars shipped to African nations from the United States, Europe and Japan, some 80 per cent “failed to meet minimum safety and environmental standards in exporting countries”. Basically, we’re exporting our smog.

To be fair, Ireland doesn’t export all that many used cars. According to the National Transfrontier Shipment Office (NTFSO), part of Dublin City Council, Ireland exported just 133 used vehicles to Africa in 2019, and just 88 were shipped in 2020.

“The export of used vehicles from Ireland to African countries is a long-established practice,” the office said. “ The NTFSO inspects these shipments to ensure the vehicles are in working order and suitable for shipment as a used vehicle. The statistics only refer to the vehicles that have been inspected by the NTFSO and, as such, do not represent the total number of used vehicles exported from Ireland.”

In others words, there could be significantly more vehicles being shipped that have just not been submitted for inspection.

A study into the shipment of cars to African nations by the Netherlands Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate found: “Those vehicles emit 90 per cent more emissions because they are not meeting the minimal standard Euro4 emissions standard.”

The cars are older and therefore simply weren’t regulated to higher emissions standards; with age, wear and tear more pollutants are emitted; and many of the cars shipped will have been stripped of emission-control equipment. Catalytic convertors – which use high-value metals such as palladium to filter the worst exhaust gases – will all but certainly have been removed.

Recycling

The answer is to start recycling these cars. Doing that could create a significant opportunity for Ireland. Clearly, it’s better if such recycling work is carried out locally when a car has reached the end of its useful life (what’s called end-of-life vehicle, or ELV) rather than just sending dead vehicles abroad to be reused or recycled.

“A comprehensive circular system for vehicles does not yet exist and this presents an opportunity for us here in Ireland,” says Elena Wrelton, environmental compliance manager at ELV Environmental Services CLG (Elves). “It can’t be denied that the recycling of vehicles has reached impressive levels. However, the recycling process to date has tended to turn high-grade metal and plastic from scrapped vehicles into biscuit tins and fence posts. Recycling, yes, but not the high-quality, high-value recycling desired in a circular economy.”

Jaguar Land Rover has spearheaded the Reality project looking at recycling aluminium from their cars back into new cars, a closed loop in circular economy speak. Renault has started using material from old seatbelts to make the trims in its new Zoe electric car and is using more than 50kg of recycled plastics in the (Europe-only) Espace.

Other manufacturers are looking at how they can incorporate low-value materials from other waste streams. Volvo, Audi and Jaguar Land Rover have started using Econyl, a recycled fibre sourced from old fishing nets in their new cars. Fiat is also doing this in the upholstery of their new 500e under the jaunty name of Seaqual.

All of which helps but, according to Wrelton, we need to be more focused, in a policy sense, in how we use, reuse and recycle cars and their components.

“When something goes wrong, such as an accident or mechanical failure, repair has become increasingly difficult because of technological advances, thus limiting the reuse market,” she says. “So how do we take these signs of change to the next level? This requires creating demand for circular products and services. Within our current system, neither economics nor what we know to be ‘environmentally right’ can be relied upon to create the change needed.

“Change requires the creation of demand either through incentives or proscriptive legislation. As a society, we have been incentivised to drive safe, modern fuel-efficient cars. More recently the push has switched to electric cars, BIK exemptions, grants and looming bans on diesel and petrol vehicles all intent on spurring the transition. On the flip side, consumers are deterred from driving older cars through emissions taxes, while insurance policies are not being issued to young people driving older stock.”

According to Elves, Ireland met both recycling targets set out in the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Directive for the first time. That meant 86.37 per cent reuse and recycling, 95.17 per cent when other forms of recovery are included. Recently released figures for 2019 show further improvement with 87.43 per cent and 95.21 per cent being the current levels of reuse and recycling and reuse, recycling and other recovery respectively.

As ever, there is still more to do. “The rise of EVs will change the circular economy of vehicles significantly,” says Wrelton. “They have the potential to last a lot longer than the cars of old, having fewer moving parts. The longevity of EV batteries, often identified as a weak point, is outliving initial predictions and they have strong potential for repurposing in other high-value applications like energy storage.

“New and improved recycling technologies for batteries are also developing fast. Vehicle manufacturers are getting increasingly involved. VW is developing a repurposing and recycling operation in Salzgitter, and Renault has similarly announced a partnership with Solvay and Veolia to create a battery recycling process. The intention of these projects is to create circular closed loops, materials from waste batteries being recycled back into new batteries.

“This creates high-value recycling and also helps address the challenges faced by manufacturers sourcing raw materials that come with a high environmental impact, from regions with questionable human rights records.

“Change is coming to the motor industry, whether driven by incentives, legislation or consumer habits. If we want this change to be circular, there is no quick fix. It will require looking at the vehicle life cycle to understand where beneficial circular loops can be created and what interventions are required to support them. Just as important and not to be underestimated will be the cultural shift required.”

Carmakers

Even carmakers are getting in on the recycling act. Recently, Mini drafted in fashion designer Paul Smith – whose distinctive stripes have appeared on the company’s cars before – to help create the Mini Strip. It’s – for now – a one-off, customised version of an electric Mini Cooper SE, but one that Smith and Mini’s design department have taken back to basics. Bar a couple of small Paul Smith badges, this Mini looks so plain it’s almost as if it has been left in the bare metal. In fact, that’s exactly right – aside from a thin transparent film sprayed on to protect against corrosion, that is bare metal – complete with grinding marks and imperfections that are normally painted over.

Even the wheelarch extensions and exterior components have been attached with screw and bolt heads left exposed. Some of the exterior plastic trim has been 3D printed using recycled plastic, salvaged from the sea. Meanwhile, the trim on the grille and the aerodynamic covers on the wheels are made from recycled perspex, as is the huge panoramic sunroof.

Inside, almost all of the trim has been removed – aside from the dashboard itself, the dash top and the parcel shelf in the back. Everything else you see is the exposed steel of the car’s construction, albeit painted in Smith’s signature dark blue hue. The big screen that takes up the centre of a standard Mini’s dash has been deleted, and in its place is a simple mobile phone holder, that connects your phone to the car and turns it into the Mini’s media centre.

The seats aren’t leather, but are a simple woven fabric. The floor mats are made from recycled rubber. The panels that cover the dash and door tops are made from recycled cork. According to Mini: “Due to cork’s recyclability and its status as a renewable raw material that actually fixes carbon dioxide during its production, there is potential here for reducing greenhouse gases.”

There is bicycle handlebar tape on the rim of the steering wheel, not leather, while the airbag in the centre of the wheel is covered with a simple, lightweight mesh. Again, there are visible screw heads here, and that, according to Mini is so that you can see how easy it would be to dismantle the steering wheel at a later date and reuse the aluminium inside.

The door panels get the same mesh material that covers the airbag, while the handles are made from recycled climbing ropes, finished in a bright orange, as are the seatbelts.

Smith was “incredibly grateful” for the opportunity to rethink the Mini and to have the “freedom to think laterally” about the car’s design. “Together I think we have created something truly unique, by going back to basics, reducing things down and stripping the car.”