Recycling your car safely is now easier than ever

We don’t need to scrap our cars very often, but when we do, we need to get it right!

It is important to know where we should take it so that it gets recycled properly. We also need to ensure that we receive the paperwork we need to be certain that the vehicle is no longer our responsibility.

That’s where ELVES, the ELV (End-of-Life Vehicle) Compliance scheme comes in. ELVES was set up to improve car recycling in Ireland and elves.ie has everything people need to know about how to scrap their car the right way.

On the ELVES website, you can find a permitted scrapyard nearby to take your car for recycling. Cork is well served with permitted scrapyards listed across the county, so there is like to be one in a fairly convenient location.Also on the website is information about the paperwork that you need to receive after handing over your car. A Certificate of Destruction (CoD) is the key document that should be issued to you when you scrap your car or small can. A CoD notifies the Department of Transport that your car has been scrapped and ends your responsibility for it.

In addition to making sure that people can scrap their car in an easy way, ELVES works to ensure that the reuse and recycling targets for End-of-Life Vehicles are met annually; a target ELVES has successfully met since being established in 2017.

ELVES is also looking to the future and is helping permitted scrapyards in Ireland to prepare for the increasing numbers of electrified vehicles arriving at their sites for recycling. In addition to running training courses for scrapyard staff, ELVES offers collection and recycling of EV batteries and has also been supplying permitted scrapyards in the network with specialist PPE for working on EVs.This year also saw the successful publication of the results of ELVES’ Electric Loops project. Electric Loops, a project funded by the EPA’s Green Enterprise Programme, looked at the reuse and recycling value of electric vehicles, which is essential information for permitted scrapyards as they plan for the future. Electric Loops is the only project of its kind in Ireland and the data provides a valuable starting point in understanding and reporting on the potential reuse and recycling value in electric vehicles.

According to Elena Wrelton of ELVES, “it is still very early days for reuse and recycling of electric vehicle parts. The volume of EVs currently being scrapped in Ireland will increase over time and ELVES is helping Ireland’s car recycling industry prepare for this change.”For further information on scrapping your car and getting a CoD see the ELVES website: elves.ie.

For more information on the Electric Loops project see elves.ie/en/electricloops.