Economic issues in recycling end-of-life vehicles

This research paper evolves from problems related to the environment as the result of today's product-based society and especially the end-of-life management of cars. The purpose is to identify key elements in car-scrapping approaches with the potential to meet the following three goals: . containing the environmental damage from end-of-life cars, . improvement of current end-of-life car management from an environmental and resource utilization standpoint, and . fostering manufacturing of scrap-adapted/recycled cars. An attempt is made to analyze how financial resources could be organized for the ELV recycling system. A few suggestions have been made in order to foster attainment of the above-mentioned goals through an extended producer responsibility through requisite market oriented financial support. In short, this paper takes a look at the economic feasibility and ingredients for success of a market for recyclables. It lays emphasis on some kind of transparency at the economic and technical levels. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.