The optimization of end-of-life vehicle recycling in the European Union

This paper discusses how design software tools and recycling models can be linked to predict the recyclability of a car during the design phase and to provide a sound technological basis when designing for recycling. Due to the car's complex design and time-varying parameters such as lifetime, weight, and composition, recycling must be optimized on a sound technological basis in which the dynamic and statistically distributed parameters affecting the recycling rate are described and understood. This paper presents dynamic and recycling models developed to optimize the recycling of the car and to calculate recycling rates. The performance of a large-scale industrial recycling experiment based on the theory presented here is also discussed. It is indicated that without any statistics involved in the estimation of recycling-rate calculation, as well as the inclusion of the issues and theory discussed in this paper, the International Organization for Standardization norm for recycling rate calculation is really useless.