Measures to reduce dumping of harmful car chemicals 'not working'
Date: 02/05/2008 12:00:00
More than a million scrap cars a year could still be ending up in landfill with tyres and harmful chemicals intact, an environmental group says.
Government rules introduced to ensure more parts and chemicals are removed from vehicles before they are dumped are not working properly, says Clean Green Cars.
End of life regulations that arrived in 2003 require cars to be de-polluted and recycled at licensed authorised treatment facilities.
Clean Green Cars representative Jay Nagley said: "The reality is that DVLA records, and a poorly policed system, have become weak links in the chain."
The group cited figures saying 900,000 certificates and notices of destruction were issued in 2006, while two million cars were taken off the road, according to figures from the trade and the DVLA.
A loophole in a form allowing people to de-register a vehicle too easily has been blamed for the problem.
Clean Green Cars is a group of environmental journalists campaigning for greener ways of driving and manufacturing vehicles.