Let's root for an automobile recycling law

By Geofrey Kasumba

On May 30th this year, MPs after a heated debate passed the Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 (Amendment) Bill 2018 which provided for banning the importation of vehicles that are eight years old or more from the date of manufacture.

The same bill provides for variation of motor vehicle registration fees as well as an environmental levy on vehicles.

The basis of these tough amendments by the government had to do with the emissions from these cars which greatly affects the environment.

While appearing before the Parliamentary Physical Infrastructure Committee a few weeks ago, the director of traffic Uganda police, AIGP Steven Kasiima asked the Committee to insert a clause in the newly proposed road and traffic safety amendment Bill 2018 mandating Police to license and regulate motor garages. Uganda Police Force will be mandated with licensing and regulation of motor garages across the country should Parliament include it in the proposed Traffic and Road Safety Amendment bill 2018.

The 149 paged National Environment Bill 2017, does not address the end of life vehicles treatment or talk about anything on automobile recycling neither in any act of National Environment Authority nor URA since they impose an environmental levy to every automobile being imported into the country.

The government under the new Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 (Amendment) Bill, proposes that a person who imports a motor vehicle which is five years old or more from the date of manufacture shall pay an environmental levy on that vehicle.

Automobiles have a big footprint, from tailpipe emissions to road infrastructure, cars can convey a sense of freedom and movement, not to mention style and status. But they also can have a big impact on the environment.

Cars consume a lot of energy before they ever make it to the open road. Automotive production leaves a giant footprint because materials like steel, rubber, glass, plastics, paints, and many more must be created before a new ride is ready to roll.

Similarly, the end of a car's life doesn't mark the end of its environmental impact. Plastics, toxic battery acids, and other products may stay in the environment. Fortunately, in Uganda, we have temporary junkyard pile-ups which aren't even regulated and there is no law to protect them, most of the junkyards are arenas for many crimes like dismantling stolen vehicle selling number plates among others.

Production, recycling, and disposal costs to the environment are difficult to quantify and largely beyond the control of most consumers. It's also true that most of an automobile's environmental impact, perhaps 80 to 90 percent, will be due to fuel consumption and emissions of air pollution and greenhouse gases that climate scientists say are driving global warming. Fortunately, the level of that impact is very much under the control of the driver.

Dismantled and pressed disused-cars should be shredded into pieces by a Shredder Machine and divided into iron, nonferrous-metal, and dust, etc. by a magnetic Selector, etc. Iron is supplied to steel manufacturers, nonferrous metal is reused as material.

Automobiles have a working age, in which they perform their best with creating minor effects on the environment. Manufacturers have to produce cars with respect to the pollution norms and by conducting tests, they deduce the working life of the car.

While over three-quarters of today's average car can be recycled, including the steel frame, there is still a negative environmental impact attached to dumping your used car in a landfill or a garage.

In Japan, where Uganda imports most of the automobiles, the Automobile Recycling Law was promulgated in July 2002 and put into effect in April 2005, it stipulates that every end-of-life vehicle (ELV) must be dismantled and recycled in an eco-friendly manner. Since the implementation of the law there have been numerous changes in the industry, such as the obligation for every company to be granted permission by their prefectural governor to dismantle or shred ELVs and now japan has created over 77,635 dealers and companies hence creating more job opportunities unlike us here.

Once we root for this law, it will help us to reduce waste production and increase the amount of reused and recycled material by requiring automakers, dealers, dismantlers and other involved parties to play their part in the nationwide recycling system for end of life of Vehicles.

The writer is a knowledge management specialist and team leader CliMates ECOs Uganda