Current status of the amendment to the ELV Directive and recyclate status of plastics – March 2025

As your partner in the plastics industry, it is important to us to keep you up to date with the relevant regulatory developments and our measures to meet the requirements.
We would therefore like to inform you about the current status of the amendment to the ELV Directive (End-of-Life Vehicles Directive) and explain when a material is considered a recyclate. Please note that this is the current status of the amendment (02/2025), which has not yet been ratified.
Current status of the ELV Directive:
The new regulation of the European Parliament and the Council sets out binding circular economy requirements for the design and management of end-of-life vehicles. Here are the most important points:

1. recycling rate for plastics:

• Objective: From a certain date (72 months after the regulation comes into force), new vehicle types must contain at least 20% recycled plastic. This proportion is to come from both post-consumer and pre-consu-mer plastic waste, including bio-based plastics.
• Specific requirement: At least 15% of this target must be achieved by using plastics from end-of-life vehicles or waste from workshops. Pre-consumer waste from vehicle production must also be included.Auch pre-consumer Abfälle aus der Fahrzeugproduktion sind einzubeziehen.

2. methodology for calculation and verification:

• The European Commission will develop a methodology to calculate and verify the proportion of recycled plastics in vehicles. This methodology will take into account the best available recycling technologies (e.g. mechanical recycling, chemical recycling).
• The traceability of recycled plastics will be ensured by a chain of custody in accordance with the ISO 22095:2020 standard.

3. restrictions and exceptions:

• Only thermoplastics and polyurethane foams are taken into account for the recycling targets, as they are easier to recycle. Elastomers and other thermosets (except polyurethane foams) are excluded from the recycling requirements.

4. inclusion of plastics from the use phase:

• All plastic parts and components that are removed and replaced during the use phase of a vehicle are considered post-consumer plastic waste and serve as a raw material for recycled plastics.

5. consideration of plastics from end-of-life vehicles:

• A certain proportion of the recycling rate must be achieved through the use of plastics from end-of-life vehicles in order to promote the circular economy in the automotive sector.

Recyclate status of plastics:

A material is classified as waste when it is disposed of by the original owner and no longer has any immediate use. This can be the case for both industrial production waste (post-industrial recyclates PIR, also known as pre-con-sumer) and waste from final consumption (post-consumer recyclates PCR, also known as post-consumer). As soon as these materials are reused or recycled, they lose their waste status and become recyclates.

Current status Anja® -Compounds:

More than 90 % of the Anja® compounds we currently produce are recyclate-based. Only raw materials that fulfill the recyclate status according to the current legal/standard situation are evaluated. The respective recycled con-tent of a material can always be found on the corresponding data sheet.

The total proportion of recycled raw materials used for our compounds in 2024 was around 75%.

The composition of these recyclates last year was broken down as follows:

The other raw materials used were virgin materials and additives such as glass fiber, colorants and additives.

We are proud to make a contribution to reducing our customers’ carbon footprint and will continue to work on increasing the proportion of post-consumer raw materials in order to support our business partners in meeting the requirements of the ELV Directive and the joint task of “sustainability” by business, politics and consumers.

Our experts will be happy to provide you with further information by telephone or in person. We would be delighted to meet you in person at one of the following specialist events this year:

• PIAE in Mannheim from 26.03.2025 to 27.03.2025
• PRSE in Amsterdam from 01.04.2025 to 02.04.2025
• Electroplast in Brussels from 01.04.2025 to 02.04.2025
• KUTENO in Bad Salzuflen from 13.05.2025 to 14.05.2025
• K trade fair in Düsseldorf from 08.10.2025 to 15.10.2025