Comparative Analysis of ELV Recycling Policies in the European Union, Japan and China

Abstract

This research aims at revealing the current status of the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) recycling systems in the European Union (EU), Japan and China which are known to have big vehicle manufacturers. The purpose of this research is to clarify their characteristics and issues, such as existing ELV recycling policy, limitations of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and environmental problems caused by secondhand car export. Japanese ELV recycling system will be analyzed as a specific example. Automakers’ effort to improve ELV recycling rate and the potential influence on recycling policy from large secondhand car export and Next-Generation Vehicle’s (NGV) popularization in Japan will be discussed and generalized. In addition, interview investigation for vehicle makers and government agencies has been conducted to have a comparative analysis of stakeholders’ (mainly automakers) attitude towards current ELV recycling law and future plans which can support Next-Generation Vehicle recycling well, as well as cross-border environmental/international resources recycling problems caused by secondhand car export.