In the EU’s pursuit of resource efficiency, copper plays a central role in vehicle manufacturing and recycling. Aurelio Braconi and Symeon Christofyllidis of the European Copper Institute highlight copper’s function as a carrier metal and its significance in reclaiming various valuable metals from End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs).
Copper acts as a carrier metal. Recycling copper brings over 20 base, precious and specialty metals, such as gold, silver, zinc, lead, bismuth, germanium, palladium, and others, back into circulation. This, in conjunction with the fact that secondary copper is high-quality and behaves exactly like primary copper, demonstrates that if copper is not recovered from ELVs, the EU is losing an enormous amount of valuable materials when high-quality resources are needed more than ever.
Copper acts as a carrier metal. Recycling copper brings over 20 base, precious and specialty metals, such as gold, silver, zinc, lead, bismuth, germanium, palladium, and others, back into circulation. This, in conjunction with the fact that secondary copper is high-quality and behaves exactly like primary copper, demonstrates that if copper is not recovered from ELVs, the EU is losing an enormous amount of valuable materials when high-quality resources are needed more than ever.
In the ever-evolving landscape of waste management, 2023 saw the European Commission embarking on a mission to boost the quality of recycled materials from End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) and grapple with the long-standing phenomenon of vehicles vanishing from the Union (‘unknown whereabouts’). To do so, it unveiled a proposal for Regulation to improve the collection, treatment and recycling of ELVs.
This Regulation presents a significant opportunity to revolutionize the way vehicles are recycled, which will aid the recovery of copper and its carried metals lost in the process. Looking at the numbers: in 2021, the number of the EU-registered passenger cars reached 253 million (Source: Eurostat). Copper is found in vehicles both as an alloy in the aluminium of engine blocks or transmission housings and as cathode in cables, batteries, windings, copper rotors, electric motors, wiring, busbars and radiators.
Research by the European Copper Institute estimated copper wires in cars used for power supply and signal communication range between 800 and 2,000 depending on the car’s size and functionalities, leading to a copper content from 8kg (a small car) to 25kg (fully equipped SUV). In essence, these 253 million cars cruising the streets represent not just a fleet of vehicles but a colossal reservoir of approximately 450kt of copper on the move!
Within the overlooked realm of recycling lies a hidden economic treasure—300kt of unclaimed copper from End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) in the EU, translating to a staggering EUR 2.4 billion in losses. As the EU hurtles toward a future dominated by electric transport, the demand for copper is set to explode by nearly 200% by 2030 (vs. 2018). The shift from conventional to hybrid and fully electric vehicles underscores copper’s irreplaceable role in the automotive sector. To unlock this economic potential, a strategic overhaul in ELV collection and enhanced recyclability of embedded components is imperative. The forecasted result? A meteoric rise in copper’s embodied economic value is projected to soar to an impressive EUR 6.8 billion (only for passenger vehicles). This is about more than just copper; it is a narrative of reclaiming copper’s embodied economic value and embracing a circular future.
To maintain this economic value and effectively safeguard this strategic material, two core challenges need to be overcome.
First, missing vehicles shall be prevented through measures to facilitate and improve visibility of where these vehicles registered in Europe end up. Strengthened and interconnected national registration systems that allow for continuous updates upon change of ownership are necessary to improve EU statistics. In addition, better enforcement of the law requiring a roadworthiness certification before a vehicle is exported outside the EU as a used car or a certificate of destruction before deregistration promises to prevent illegal exports and dismantling of cars at sites with less advanced technologies.
The copper industry has a vested interest in addressing the missing vehicles challenge. Amidst the need for more high-quality secondary resources to feed in the transition to e-mobility, the fact that recycled copper has the same quality as primary ore needs to be remembered. For this reason, the EU economy should by no means lose this high-quality stream. That said, the strategic orientation of the EU must:
- Increase recycling capacity within the Union
- Secure legal exports of metal fractions to countries with sites that can safely recycle them
Second, the recycling and recovery of high-quality secondary materials must be guaranteed through coordinated cross-industry and value chain cooperation based on a Design-for-Sustainability approach. Only in this way can the more than 20 metals carried by copper be made available for reuse. Copper smelters, with their sophisticated metallurgical processes, have a unique role to play in increasing secondary resource availability, which includes not only copper but also iron, zinc, lead, and nickel, to name a few. However, to effectively do so, designers should reduce the complexity of vehicle parts through cooperation with copper smelters and recyclers for easier dismantling and de-pollution.
The International Copper Association has funded a Fraunhofer Institute study that mapped all common copper-alloy families for easier identification of the different elements in a car (Figure 4 below and here) and has been in continuous engagement with supply chain partners to secure mutual understanding of the existing challenges for efficient recycling arising from the complexity of the materials used.
Policymakers can incentivize the deployment of sensor-based technologies that promise economic recovery of materials and foster enforcement of Extended Producer Responsibility schemes (EPR schemes) across Member States by allocating costs equally.
The increased copper demand in the move toward alternative, lower carbon powertrains, combined with the tripling of the economic value expected, make vehicle design, recycling, and waste management of paramount importance. Because copper can be recycled many times without loss of its intrinsic properties (making it equal to primary copper) and copper smelters can recover materials during copper recycling, it can be reasonably argued that copper is among the key drivers for making vehicles’ sustainable production and recycling happen in Europe. If policymakers want to make the Circular Economy work, every single stakeholder, institution, business sector, and economic operator needs to share the responsibility and become fully accountable for the processes they run, their decisions, and the outputs they produce.
This is how the road to a regenerative economy can be paved.
More information about copper recycling from ELVs can be found here and here.
The Authors
Aurelio Braconi
Director (EU) Material Stewardship Program, European Copper Institute
Symeon Christofyllidis
Policy Manager Circular Economy Material Stewardship Program, European Copper Institute
For additional information on the subject, contact Anna-Maria Karjalainen, Director (EU) Climate and Sustainability Director, European Copper Institute.
