FUTURE STRATEGY AND ACTIVITIES

by | Apr 7, 2001 | Egara Position Paper

EGARA

FUTURE STRATEGY AND ACTIVITIES

2001.04.07

  1. EGARA future strategy.

 

Based on the aims of EGARA, as formulated at the foundation in 1991:

  • to facilitate and develop the economic activities’
  • to stimulate the development of environmentally justified working methods for the companies
  • to stimulate product and material reuse,

The mission of EGARA is to be the European umbrella association for the national associations of auto recyclers in Europe. As such, EGARA represents the professional, environment conscious auto recyclers in Europe. The simple, basic philosophy of auto recyclers in EGARA is:

“My business is to sell quality second hand automotive parts. In order to obtain these, I have to dismantle cars, ELVs and damaged cars. When dismantling, I ensure the protection of the environment from hazardous ‘elements’ present in the vehicle and follow the strict rules of operation required for environmental protection.”

Therefore, the objectives of EGARA are:

In dialogue with European authorities and other associations involved the ELV-chain, the aim of EGARA is:

  • to develop and defend the interests of the European auto recyclers
  • to support activities in order to facilitate the trade in second hand automotive parts

In doing so, EGARA stresses environmentally sound working principles, seeking to achieve, in order of priority:

1:         Optimal reuse

2:         Optimal recycling

3:         Minimal landfill

as a result of the treatment of ELV’s.

To achieve this, EGARA collaborates with similar associations across the world, e.g. in US, Canada and Australia.

  1. Basic mission

The basic mission of EGARA is to ensure, that there is appropriate and adequate legislation allowing  automotive recyclers fair and equal conditions for the operation of their businesses in all Member States without the creation of unnecessary obstacles.

This does, inter alia, cover the following vital elements in our businesses:

  • acquiring ELVs and damaged cars
  • transport of ELVs and damaged cars, nation wide and cross-border
  • Environmental rules for operating a facility
  • trade in second hand automotive parts
  • Qualification/training requirements for staff.

EGARA will, in collaboration with the national associations and similar associations world-wide, seek to influence international legislation in this direction, paying due respect to necessary environment protection, traffic and consumer security

  1. Activities at EGARA level

Collaboration with other European parties

As the European umbrella association, EGARA should be present in dialogues with the European Commission, European Parliament etc.. In the future we should seek to strengthen our European position, by seeking to get involved in other European activities within the sphere of our interests. Our aim should not be, to be present in as many activities as possible, but in those activities which are paramount to our trade, and where we, as dismantlers, have experience and competence to offer.

In these areas, we should, when necessary, provide  policy/position papers and participate in meetings, working groups, conferences etc.

As the representatives of professional dismantlers at the European level, EGARA  should become  a necessary collaborative partner for other associations in the car industry. Although there are basic conflicts of interests with some of them, e.g. ACEA and CLEPA, basically because (in principle), when we sell a used part, one less new part is sold, there are also many areas where there are common interests.

EGARA should, when appropriate, seek to identify areas where there are common interests, and within which all parties can obtain mutual benefits by co-operation and collaboration.

Common ‘lists of conditions’ for membership.

EGARA will develop a common set of (minimum) conditions to be observed by all member associations.

Common quality coding systems

Knowing that quality is a key concern for second-hand parts, and knowing that we, more or less all, have developed our own quality coding systems, we should seek to establish a harmonised, pan-European quality coding system in order to further trade across borders.

Further discussion about this will take place during and after the forthcoming EGARA-meeting in Zürich, November 2000, where new facilities will be demonstrated, and where the item of a common numbering system for parts will also be discussed.

In the light of the forthcoming ELV directive and its requirement that the safety of re-used parts be guaranteed, it is essential that EGARA, together with its member associations develop adequate mechanisms to deal with these safety issues. Failure to do this will almost certainly mean that rules will be imposed by the authorities and/or the manufacturers in which case they are unlikely to be in the best interests of members.

As the first step towards this, EGARA will collect information about present rules/obstacles in its member countries.

An EGARA WWW-Server

An EGARA WWW-Server will be made operational

Advertising membership of EGARA

National associations should be encouraged to use the EGARA-logo on their letterhead-paper, brochures, Webs etc.

Producing international statistics

The lack of good dismantling statistics is evident. If  a common system could be set up through which we could produce European statistics about dismantling etc., we would  become more credible. Reporting VIN-numbers back to the producers, would allow them to calculate  exactly how many cars of a particular model  are still is on the market, which would help them plan spare parts production. This could lead to the Vm’s realising, that at a certain level, it is not cost-beneficial to continue producing new spare parts. Obviously we dismantlers would be the most suitable people to provide the parts the Vm’s no longer wished to produce.

Statistics concerning the ELV-directive.

The main problem is  how to report/calculate re-use and recycling percentages. In EGARA’s opinion, it will be impossible to obtain totally accurate data on recycling rates. We also believe, that any mechanism by which it is required that data for each individual ELV is collected, will not only be inadequate, but also extremely cumbersome.

Hence, other mechanisms must be investigated carefully, and EGARA should make a proposal before that is done by any of the other parties involved.

A relative simple model could look like this.

  • we know (from the producers) the weight of a vehicle when it leaves the factory
  • we also know the exact amount of waste fractions, i.e. oil, break-fluid etc. in a new vehicle
  • we know exactly the quantities of waste fractions we deliver
  • we also know the total weight of ‘rest-vehicle’ we deliver to the shredders
  • We have – or could get – good averages for the amounts of ‘waste fractions’ in a vehicle when it is delivered to us.

 

Knowing these items, the ‘data on spare parts to stock’ can easily be calculated, so avoiding having to report the weight per car.

We should, in collaboration with the producers, the shredders, the recyclers etc. take this further and seek to establish the ‘rules for reporting’.

European and National authorities need to be convinced, that since it is impossible to collect totally accurate data, a 100% correct figure for recycling percentages can never by calculated. As EGARA sees it, it is therefore much more important to have a methodology where each party involved in the ELV-chain delivers data to the authorities which demonstrates to the Commission and indeed everybody else – that progress is made. This will be possible if we use the same ‘estimative’ method year by year,.

Harmonisation of rules for dismantling and de-polluting an ELV

It is in EGARA’s interest, that on a world-wide basis, dismantlers operate on fair and equal conditions. As a first step towards achieving this, EGARA will establish on overview of present rules concerning de-polluting ELVs its member countries.

Universal Terms for basic things

Currently there is some confusion about the terms used for our business. Are we dismantlers, car-scrappers, automotive recyclers, autorecyclers etc? This confusion becomes evident whenever the media, the law makers and others refer to us, and clearly some of the expressions used do have a clear negative implication.

Working on the principles that we do not have the image we deserve, and that it is up to us to do something about it, EGARA should aim at getting:

  • The term “autorecycler” recognised as the appropriate term to use
  • Authorities, the media and the general public to recognise and confirm, that re-use is the highest possible form of recycling and is prior to materials recycling.

In this context it should be noted, that autorecycler is the term used concerning  CAR International (see below), and, even more importantly, our colleagues at ARA have achieved the recognition by their Federal Government of re-use as the best form of recycling.

  1. Activities at the national level

 

National associations should continue to develop their conditions for obtaining membership. This process has already started, and it aims at obtaining a situation where the fact that you are a member of the national association, is a recognition of professionalism in itself – a kind of “blue stamp”. In order to get there, two things need to be furthered:

A: Full recognition  that we are environment conscious (or ‘green’)

B: Making it ‘safe’ for the customers to deal with automotive recyclers.

To obtain A, elements such as the following must be considered:

  • further development of environment management ‘standards’ and promotion of this, to dismantlers, other trade associations and the general public
  • ensuring that the first impression one gets of a yard is that, environment consciousness is ‘on the top of the agenda’
  • that a yard looks more like a ‘car-part shop’ than as a ‘car-scrapping place’.

Concerning item B, ‘safe’, it is important that one realises, that when  buying ‘used parts’,  mostly you do not really know what you get until you get it.

Considering this, elements such as the following must be considered:

  • common and harmonised classification schemes for the ‘quality’ of the parts, giving the customer a fair idea about what he is buying
  • common and harmonised sales warranty/guarantee schemes, in which the customers feel ‘safe’, e.g. if something is ‘wrong’, it will be put ‘right’, following the same lines – but obviously not the same details – as for new parts.

In this work it is necessary to follow the rules made in the EU directive 1999/44/EC on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees.

In this directive a two year consumer guarantee is specified, with the first 6 months automatically assuming that, the product had ‘non-conformity’ by at the time of delivery, unless proved to be conform by the vendor.

However, Member States may apply shorter times for second hand goods.

Although this directive uniquely deals with direct consumer sales, and as such therefore is not binding when a second hand part is sold in a business to business deal (e.g. to a repair shop which then has to carry the consumer guarantee) EGARA recommends national associations cater for this in an appropriate way when defining  guarantee rules, i.e. by using the same time limits that the trade buyer is required to give to his customer.

Adopted at the EGARA-meeting, Amsterdam, 07.04.2001