Newsroom
A new European Union regulation covering cars that reach the end of their useful life took effect Thursday, but Cypriot drivers can relax: nobody is coming to tow away the old car still faithfully, or perhaps noisily, getting them to work.
The rules do not say that a vehicle must be scrapped simply because it is old. A roadworthy car can still be driven, repaired, and sold. The regulation instead targets vehicles that have genuinely become waste, as well as cars that disappear from official records only to be illegally dismantled or exported.
For Cyprus, where used cars, replacement parts, and keeping an older vehicle alive are a familiar part of motoring life, that distinction matters.
Under the new system, vehicles officially judged to be beyond use must be delivered to an authorized treatment center. They cannot be sold or exported as secondhand cars. However, a vehicle that can still be repaired may be exempted from being classified as waste following an assessment.
The wider aim is to recover far more of what goes into a car. Across Europe, between 10 million and 12 million vehicles are discarded every year, taking large amounts of steel, aluminum, copper, and plastic with them.
Instead of allowing those materials to go to waste, the EU wants old vehicles dismantled properly so useful parts and raw materials can return to the market.
Car manufacturers will also carry more responsibility for what happens to the vehicles they sell once those vehicles reach the end of the road. From September 2029, producers will be expected to help finance proper collection and recycling systems.
Newly approved vehicle models will gradually be required to contain more recycled material. Recycled plastic must make up at least 15% of their plastic content from 2032, increasing to 25% from 2036. Separate targets for recycled steel and aluminum are also expected.
For the average driver in Cyprus, the immediate effect will be limited because most of the main obligations will be introduced gradually. Over time, however, the island can expect tighter checks on deregistered cars, illegal scrapyards, and exports of vehicles that are no longer roadworthy.
Owners should also eventually be able to hand over a complete end-of-life vehicle to an authorized facility free of charge. A fee may apply if major parts, such as the engine or electric battery, have already been removed without proper documentation.
The message from Brussels is fairly simple: Keep repairing your car for as long as it remains safe and roadworthy. But when it really does reach the end, it should become spare parts and raw material, not an abandoned shell in a field.
*With info from the European Commission
