Chair of the MTA Automotive Dismantlers division, Darran van der Woude, is involved with the federally funded, high-profile End-Of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Product Stewardship program.

As owner of River Murray Auto Wreckers, located at Renmark, Darran has been a key player in ELV discussions for a number of years.

As part of the program, on 21 July, Darran’s business was visited by Robert Eames and Wendy Geraghty from Fivenines Consulting, along with Mick McKenna, Industry Policy Advisor from VACC, described by Darran as being pivotal from the onset of the program.

The visit was part of the crucial proof of concept phase to test criteria for proposed Authorised Treatment Facilities around the country and examine workflows of the automotive dismantler industry.

“It was to discover the ‘timeline’ of how vehicles end up here, and the costs involved to get them to my gate,” Darran explained.

“We looked at the numbers; vehicles dismantled, times for removal of components, weights and volumes of components, which items get resold, which are scrap metal and which is landfill, etc.”.

Fivenines Consulting will compile data they gained from the visit, and combine it with other historical data collected by Darran and other automotive dismantlers to create a snapshot of what the average process looks like for ELVs across Australia.

“They’ll look at what percentage of end of life vehicles are being resold, what is being scrapped for repurpose, what is being sold for burning in furnaces, and what is going to landfill,” he said.

The purpose of the project is to identify what potential issues Authorised Treatment Facilities may face, and what equipment may be required for them to run efficiently.

“Ultimately, the outcome of the project will be the Federal Government creating ELV legislation guiding or dictating how a car is processed or decommissioned for its end of life. Australia is the only first world country not to have legislation around this,” Darran explained.

“Other possible outcomes include identifying recycling opportunities currently being missed out on due to low processed vehicle numbers, identifying cleaner recycling processes, better efficiencies in dismantling, and identifying better storage and waste disposal practices.”

A recent meeting of all parties involved in the project found that every automotive dismantling operation is unique, and that finding a model that will fit every potential ELV Authorised Treatment Facility may be difficult.

Data collection and strategic planning for this project will continue for the foreseeable future.

The MTA will keep members up to date on the project.