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As the European Directive on end-of-life vehicle (ELV) treatment has heavily influenced policies in many countries, car manufacturers need to reconsider the early phases of the product design to enable better ELV treatment. This paper proposes policy, technical and business recommendations to improve the reuse, recycling and recovery (RRR) rate of ELVs. A comparative analysis between the United Kingdom and Japan is undertaken, in which the two countries' contextual background is described along with their RRR performance from a lifecycle perspective. Barriers and countermeasures to improve the RRR rates are discussed based upon mutual learning between the two countries.

The rapid growth of market share of Electrical Vehicles (EVs) and their increasing amount of electric and electronic components have introduced difficult challenges for future recycling of such vehicles. End of Life Vehicles (ELVs), together with Waste from Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), are renowned as an important source of secondary raw materials. In addition, a significant proportion of the hidden value at the End-of-Life (EoL) of the EVs is embedded in the light fractions containing complex material mixtures, i.e. the management of electronic components that has been rarely considered in the scientific literature. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap through the use of an innovative disassembly approach to identify the profitability of recycling such electronic components. The novel approach, based on the utilisation of a robotic system, disassembles and extracts Strategically Important Materials (SIMs) from EV components, thereby improving the concentration of these materials prior to final recycling and refining processes. This paper presents the challenges in the robotic disassembly of Electrical and Electronic (E&E) components. A case study has also been included to demonstrate that an average 95% of the materials and their associated recovery value could be achieved.

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The key features of reconfigurable manufacturing systems, including modularity, scalability and customisability, have provided production flexibility to enable manufacturers to deal with increasing demands for product variability and emerging smart materials. This increased complexity in design and material mix has also highlighted a need for more flexible and advanced technologies for recycling modern products at the end of their life. This paper examines the adoption of key features in reconfigurable systems to increase flexibility and automation in recycling activities. The application of such a 'Reconfigurable Recycling System' (RRS) has been illustrated using a specially designed robotic cell which disassembles and concentrates strategically important materials from components of electrical cars.