International Industrial Ecology Day 2021
SWOT Analysis on End-of-Life Vehicle Recycling in Developing Countries
Abstract
The poor treatment of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) is a major problem in most developing countries. ELVs are stockpiled in police station yards, abandoned on the streets, backyards, and in other areas. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has stressed that it is vital to establish a circular economy by promoting recycling and recycling industries in developing countries to alleviate the many serious waste management system pressures in those countries. The establishment of proper ELV recycling systems will reduce environmental pollution, and provide a vital source of secondary raw materials for use in industry.We conducted a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis to identify the challenges and opportunities for recycling ELVs in developing countries. We considered the following eight developing countries: Cameroon, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, India, Mexico, Malaysia and South Africa. We reviewed scientific papers and reports, identified common parameters for each SWOT component applicable in these countries, and assigned ratings ranging from 0 to 2, where 0 is “none”, 1 is “some”, and 2 is “considerable”. The developing countries with emerging economies showed greater strengths, while Nigeria and the other developing countries indicated significant weaknesses. All countries were deemed to have considerable opportunities with regard to their potential for ELV recycling, and were shown to be susceptible to the specific threats identified. The major challenge faced in these countries is how to collect and manage ELVs in a systematic manner, with steps to reprocess the vehicles in order to maximize the economic benefits from the recovery of materials and parts/components while fulfilling the environmental regulations. The opportunities include low labor cost for recycling businesses, and the large market size. These countries are mostly lacking in terms of ELV policy formulation. It is imperative for the governing authorities to ensure effective ELV policies, and to promote cooperation among stakeholders.
Author(s)
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Solange Ayuni Numfor | Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University |
| Geoffrey Barongo Omosa | School of Engineering and Architecture, Meru University of Science and Technology. |
| Zhengyang Zhang | Tohoku University |
| Kazuyo Matsubae | Tohoku University |