Assessment of Ecodesign potential in reaching new recycling targets

Every year, in Europe, End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) constitute about 8-9 million tonnes of waste, that must be properly managed. Directive 2000/53/EC fixed new European targets for vehicle recovery (i.e., recycling plus energy recovery): 85% of recovery, of which 80% recycled or reused, by 2006, rising to 95% and 85% respectively by 2015. In order to comply with this Directive, both car producers and ELVs treatment plants must promptly tackle this issue. In this paper, a study on the impact that pre-shredder treatment could have in achieving 85% recyclability rate in 2015 has been carried out. To do this, a Design for Recycling (DfR) software has been used, named ProdTect (R), that integrates real recycling market data, market feedback and development experience to provide an overall evaluation of products End-of-Life performance. An experimental disassembly and composition analysis of a commercial model of a car seat and a simulation of new ecodesigned joining techniques applied to it, have been performed, in order to investigate both the economics and the feasibility of this step in the future ELVs treatment chain. In order to achieve and, if possible, go beyond 85% of recyclability in 2015, car seats are found to play an important role: by dismantling them, 86.2% of recyclability may be achieved by recovering PUR, textile and belts. Another important result is that by pre-treating and dismantling bumpers, fuel tanks, tyres, glass and car seats it is possible to reduce ASR mass disposed in landfill by 42%. Moreover, design for dismantling techniques may reduce dismantling time to a third by simply innovating joinings. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.