Advocating Government for a vehicle end of life recycling scheme

With currently over 800,000 vehicles removed from Australian roads annually and expected to increase, the imperative for Government and industry to develop a policy solution that minimizes the negative impacts on the environment and provides a sustainable business opportunity for industry is required. MTAA, and its member association, the Victoria Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC) is advocating the Commonwealth Government to develop a vehicle end-of-life (EOL) recycling scheme that is cost neutral for government and promotes business opportunity and activity for the Automotive recycling and dismantling industry.

Australia is one of the only OECD countries without a deliberate, national coordinated strategy to deal with vehicles that have reached end of life naturally by age use or written off by accident or incident.

There is a significant opportunity for dismantlers / recyclers to benefit from the development of a EOL recycling scheme, but action from the Federal Government (Environment Australia) has been slow due to the potential cost and development of policies that cross multiple government and government departmental jurisdictions.

MTAA and VACC have taken it upon themselves to ‘unlock’ the basket by providing to Environment Australia and the Federal Minister a Policy Framework to demonstrate how such a scheme might work, how it could be funded (and self-funding) and the policy imperatives that would need to be legislated.

MTAA and VACC have in partnership with Monash University and Ducere Business School produced distinctive pieces of work which included:

• Identifying average national de-commissioning costs.
• Environmental compliance requirements by jurisdiction and against international best practice.
• Differences in approaches to decommissioning /dismantling between recycler business models and jurisdiction.
• An overview of what has been undertaken and is currently underway in other leading OECD countries including lessons learned and problems experienced
• Financial modelling based on industry (manufacturer / importer) pays; consumer pays (registration or levy) or combination of both.

A consultant has been engaged to provide an approach to finalisation of the policy framework and stakeholder and political engagement strategy with a view to either proceeding with the suggested pathway or MTAA proceeding on its own. The aim is to have draft policy and macro operating suggestions before the Minister by mid-2018.

APRAA members have played a key advisory role in the development work thus far. Their in-depth industry knowledge has provided technical and business input into policy frameworks so that any developed solution is practical and appropriate to the business operations of recyclers and dismantlers.

Takata airbag recall

MTAA and its member associations are providing advice to business constituents, including automotive recyclers and dismantlers, so that they are aware and can comply with the biggest product recall in Australian automotive history.

MTAA is also advocating to the ACCC to ensure that the recall does not adversely affect automotive businesses and have been influential in persuading the ACCC to make changes to recall requirements to address shortcomings / issues identified by MTAA member associations and their business constituents.

MTAA is also advocating that the ACCC provide clarity to industry on recall requirements including undertaking a national information roadshow to assist compliance from industry and to ensure automotive businesses understand their responsibilities and obligations.

MTAA is providing to its member associations comprehensive and current information updates so that business members have increased clarity over recall requirements.

For more information on the Takata air bag recall (including an over view of the recall and links to Government websites) please access the following link. Read More

Government enforcement against unlicensed operators

APRAA members have highlighted to MTAA and member associations that unlicensed industry operators in automotive recycling and dismantling industry are benefiting from being unregulated and operating a cash economy. APRAA members have also highlighted that the scale of unlicensed industry operators is unclear but may equal the number of licensed operators. 

APRAA members also noted that licensed automotive recycling and dismantling businesses are being unfairly targeted by government authorities for inspection and that by complying with regulatory requirements (including environmental regulatory requirements) licensed operators have increased costs and are unfairly disadvantaged in terms of competitiveness as compared to unlicensed operators.

As a result, MTAA and APRAA are advocating to Commonwealth and state and territory jurisdictional governments to examine the automotive recycling and dismantling industry and to take action preventing unlicensed operators from conducting business.

MTAA and APRAA are undertaking multiple advocacy activities to promote Government action including:

• Undertaking research to identify the number of unlicensed operators across Australia and to identify the scope of untaxed business operations. Armed with this information MTAA and APRAA will contact key parliamentarians and Government officials to advocate for action against unlicensed operators.
• Utilising other advocacy activities such as the development of a vehicle end-of-life recycling scheme that includes accreditation and / or certification of businesses to be involved. Such a scheme would require businesses to operate to certain standards and would help prevent vehicles from being recycled or dismantled by unlicensed businesses.
• Compiling information on different state and territory regulatory regimes to identify and highlight effective Government enforcement activities that inhibit the operations of unlicensed operators. With this information MTAA and APRAA willadvocatethe Commonwealth and state and territory jurisdictional governments to adopt legislation to protect the interests of APRAA members and legitimate and licensed automotive recycling and dismantling businesses.

MTAA and APRAA understand that a multiple advocacy approaches are required to address unlicensed operators and unlawful activities within the automotive dismantling and recycling industry. MTAA and APRAA are also confident that by incorporating the issue of unlicensed operators into other key environmental and financial government objectives,governments will take action to protect the business interests of APRAA members and reduce unlawful and unlicensed automotive recycling and dismantling operations.