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Wolfsburg, June 18, 2007 – The Member of the Board of
Management of the Volkswagen Brand with responsibility for Development, Dr.
Ulrich Hackenberg, was today presented with two certificates by Ekhard Zinke,
President of the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). These are the first
such certificates to be issued by KBA and confirm that the Volkswagen Group is
the first automaker worldwide to produce series vehicles which are recyclable to
a minimum of 85 percent and reusable to a minimum of 95 percent by mass.
“The certificates again confirm the pioneering role of
Volkswagen in the environmentally compatible recycling of vehicles,” Dr. Ulrich
Hackenberg, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Brand with
responsibility for Development, commented. According to Hackenberg, innovative
recycling has a long tradition at Volkswagen: “Last year, Volkswagen won the
“European Business Award for the Environment” and the environmental award
presented by the Federation of German Industries for its pioneering end-of-life
recycling technology.” Volkswagen joined up with SiCon GmbH back in 1999 to
develop a recycling process for end-of-life vehicles which is particularly
effective in protecting the environment and preserving resources.
“We can confirm that Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft integrates
all the required methods, systems and processes as early as the vehicle
development stage and complies with all the administrative and technical
requirements set out in EU Directive 2005/64/EC concerning recycling-compatible
design, production and end-of-life disposal,” KBA President Ekhard Zinke said as
he presented the certificates.
The “Reusability, Recoverability and Recyclability”
certificate issued by the Federal Motor Transport Authority on behalf of the EU
confirms that Volkswagen already complies with the administrative and technical
requirements of the new EU Directive 2005/64/EC before it comes into effect.
From December 2008, when the new Directive is enforced, all vehicle
manufacturers will be obliged to provide evidence of recyclability when applying
for type approval of new vehicles. The Directive specifies that new vehicles
must be reusable and/or recyclable to a minimum of 85 percent and reusable
and/or recoverable to a minimum of 95 percent by mass.
The new recycling requirements will become part of the
type-approval procedure and oblige all vehicle manufacturers to submit a
satisfactory strategy for ensuring the reusability of components and for the
recyclability and recoverability of materials. Furthermore, the arrangements and
procedures put in place by the vehicle manufacturer to manage all information
received from suppliers will also be assessed.
Pioneering recycling strategy – The Volkswagen-SiCon
process
The much-acclaimed Volkswagen-SiCon process recovers materials
from end-of-life vehicles for use as a valuable source of raw materials.
Following treatment, hard plastics, rubber, textiles, glass and metal residues
replace primary raw materials and thus contribute to protecting natural
resources. Apart from the ecological aspect, this process presents an
economically attractive alternative for secondary raw material users as raw
material prices continue to rise.
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