MP Warns Council of New Abandoned Car Crisis

1.15.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 26th Jul 2004

Vince Cable MP and abandoned car

MP Vincent Cable has contacted Richmond Council to inform them of an imminent major problems arising from the decision last week of metals recycling companies to stop receiving cars for scrap.

The problem arises from failures at a national level to realise the implications of the 1999 Landfill Directive which now makes it illegal to dispose of hazardous waste along with non-hazardous waste. Cars are a mixture of the two and the recycling companies do not know, and have not been told, what to do with the 27% or so of car mass that cannot be recycled (mainly rubber and plastics). There is no satisfactory test available, and the companies will be fined if they send waste to the wrong site. As a result 45,000 old cars a week are starting to pile up. Thousands of cars have nowhere to go.

Vincent Cable said: "This makes the 'fridge mountain' problem look tiny. If there is no early answer to the crisis, abandoned cars will start appearing in serious numbers on the streets. Councils already have to foot the bill for abandoned cars but they now have a new problem".

"The government has drifted into this problem as it did with fridges; but the consequences are now much more serious. Most councils are not yet even aware of the problem about to hit them."