Anselmo Calò, President of ADA (the Italian Vehicle Recycling Association), discusses upcoming EU regulations reshaping the auto recycling industry. With deep roots in car dismantling, he warns of job risks, advocates for fair EPR systems, and proposes a National Coordination Centre to ensure transparency, sustainability, and balanced collaboration with manufacturers.
New EU Regulations, the Role of ADA and the Italian Auto Recycling Industry
ADA is the main and oldest association of car dismantlers in Italy. It was founded 35 years ago in Milan and today it associates almost 300 companies throughout the country. I have been a manager of the association for many years and have been its president since 2019; in 2026, my commitment to the association will definitely end due to having reached the age limit.
My family has been dismantling cars since 1934, and I am the third generation to do this job. I have vehicle demolition and recycling in my veins.
The Regulation-Act, now being discussed by the European institutions, is the perspective that they want to give to the automotive industry for the next 50 years. The positive news is the decision to create a single Regulation-Act governing the design, production, and end-of-life of motor vehicles, outlining how to build them and how to dismantle them, thereby creating a cycle as closed as possible for the materials used. The circular economy is an ecological response to the production of waste, as far as plastic is concerned, and a policy of maintaining even critical raw materials on the European continent.
This system organization is not completely new, as it was already anticipated by the EU2000/53 Directive. With the Regulation, it is decided to advance in the direction outlined, maintaining the recycling objectives at 85% of the weight of the vehicle, but partially indicating the destination of the recycled materials. The major novelty is that up to now, the objective must be achieved at a national level with reference to all vehicles demolished in the year, while in the new perspective, each plant must achieve the objective with reference to the vehicles it demolishes in the year.
Unfortunately, in these 25 years of application of Directive UE2000/53, we are not certain that the objectives have actually been achieved, because no calculations have been carried out (except in Italy, the only country that declared to have achieved the objective starting from 2022). The achievement of the objective by ATFs is therefore the innovative element, not only because it is introduced by the legislation, but also because it must lead the operators to a higher dismantling activity aimed at recycling. This will lead to a reorganization of the ATFs and an important qualitative leap.
Family-Run ATFs in Italy Face Uncertain Future as Industry Eyes Takeover
In Italy, there are just over 1400 ATFs operating – all owned by families. There are relatively large companies with 100/200 employees, but they are few; most are companies that demolish up to 1000 cars a year with a limited number of workers, around 10 or 12. There are also a hundred companies that demolish between 1000 and 5000 vehicles; altogether, they employ up to 40,000 people, including the members of the families that run these companies. If the automotive industry decides to take over this sector, and unfortunately, we have received signals in this direction, all these workers would be at risk. The industry sees our activity not only as a profitable business area, but also as a way to relocate the redundant workforce they suffer from.
Proposal Calls for National Coordination Centre to Oversee EPR Compliance and Support Auto Recycling Sector
The Regulation in the initial proposal of the European Commission states that the EPR can be carried out in two ways: through PROs in a collective manner or directly by the Producer in an individual manner. The PROs are required to have certain characteristics and certain behaviors, also for the identification of the costs of the EPR. Otherwise, those who act individually do not have many precise indications of behavior. The French experience has shown us that the Producers prefer the individual system, consequently, we will have different operators in each country.
According to the law, each ATF is required to accept vehicles from all brands, which raises a key challenge: how to assign responsibility for the processing of each brand’s vehicles across numerous ATFs. This also prompts the question, when it comes to the reuse of materials from dismantled vehicles, who will be held accountable?
A coordination centre would be responsible for collecting data on both withdrawn vehicles and recovered materials, ensuring proper implementation of the EPR system. It would also oversee ATF compliance with authorisation requirements and monitor progress toward regulatory targets, along with any other duties assigned by the Member State.
This Coordination Centre should be promoted and directed by the government authority, and the various stakeholders would be called to participate, including producers, ATFs, recyclers, shredders, spare parts market platforms and possibly insurance companies.
Concerns Rise Over EPR Becoming a Profit Tool for Carmakers, Threatening Independent Auto Recyclers Across Europe
The EPR can be seen as an interesting business opportunity for the automotive industry, and this would somehow distort the institution itself. The one who would pay the consequences would be the consumer, who would see the entire automotive sector in the hands of a few. We have already witnessed the disappearance of vehicle maintenance craftsmen; everything now passes through the workshops of the manufacturers’ dealers, and even our sector can end up in a similar situation.
The Case for Balanced EPR Agreements and Legal Market Access for Auto Recyclers
The ADA believes in an honest collaboration with manufacturers for the implementation of an efficient EPR system. For this reason, agreements must be stipulated that are supervised by the Authorities to avoid that they are unbalanced in favor of the industry, which evidently has greater contractual power. In this collaboration perspective, there will clearly be no competition between Manufacturers and dismantlers.
We want to collaborate to provide the industry with materials to reuse in the production cycle and to economically support our companies without resorting to subsidies from the industry, being able to sell used spare parts in a market that is closed to illegal operators. Only in an ATF should it be possible to dismantle a vehicle, and only spare parts coming from ATFs should be able to be placed on the market.
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