98.3 percent of the weight of end-of-life cars was recycled last year. This is evident from figures from ARN, which, together with nearly 300 recycling companies, carries out car recycling in the Netherlands.
In total, 225,804 cars were discarded in the Netherlands last year (in 2019 this was 234,384). These cars end up at car dismantling companies, whether or not through garages. They deregister the car for dismantling and collect all liquids from the car for recycling by specialized companies. Many parts of a discarded car can still be used and are given a second life. For example the starter motor, gearbox and headlights.
After dismantling, the bare car wreck is sent to a shredder company. The shredder installation grinds the car into small pieces of metal and residual material. The metals, such as iron, copper and aluminum, are separated and recovered for the metal processing industry. The residual material is sent to the post-shredder plant for further processing.
CO2 savings
Thanks to responsible and high-quality car recycling, 214.63 kilotons of CO2 were saved in the car recycling chain last year, compared to 198 kilotons of CO2 in 2019. This recycling is possible thanks to the recycling contribution of € 35 that was charged per new car in 2020. This year the recycling contribution is € 30 per car. From April 30, the recycling fee will also apply to cars imported from abroad that will receive a Dutch registration number.
Recycling of EV batteries
A separate story is the recycling of batteries from electric cars. Some of these batteries find a new destination, a larger part is recycled. In 2020, 121,020 kilograms of lithium-ion batteries were collected via ARN (102,068 kg in 2019). Of this, 22,441 kilograms were eligible for reuse in the form of energy storage, for example, and 98,579 kilograms were recycled.