Strategy

How We Create Value

The impact of the automotive sector on our society is substantial and complex. For many years, efforts have been made towards more sustainable production and consumption, and not least: recycling and reuse.

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Car Recycling

ARN focuses on the part of the automotive chain that begins at the moment a car or battery is discarded. This recycling chain in the Netherlands is characterized by a high degree of professionalism. Almost all materials, components, and fluids are recovered, reused, recycled, and/or put to good use. This is a direct result of the fact that in the Netherlands, a system was set up in the 1990s to recycle car wrecks in an environmentally responsible manner, even before the European End-of-Life Vehicles Directive was published in 2000.

Broadly speaking, the recycling chain for car wrecks consists of three phases: dismantling, shredding/post-shredding, and processing of the dismantled materials. The dismantling companies account for about 25% of the recycling result. The shredder companies achieve another 73% through recycling, useful application, and energy recovery.

Car Recycling at a Glance: The Chain and its Performance

The post-shredder phase is entirely credited to the factory that ARN established in 2011 and transferred to market player HKS Metals about ten years later. This so-called Post Shredder Technology (PST) factory in Tiel ensures that all material coming from the shredder companies via ARN is processed with priority. This allows us to meet the legal recycling obligation in the Netherlands.

The state-of-the-art car recycling chain is the result of collaboration between relevant market parties that jointly represent the production and sale, dismantling, and recycling of cars. Through and with ARN, they implement European regulations in the field of producer responsibility.

Recycling of EV Batteries

Since 2008, ARN has also facilitated the collection, recycling, and potential second use of EV batteries. Optimizing this rapidly growing chain is important, among other things, for the environment (adequate processing) and the recovery of (critical) raw materials.

EV Battery Recycling at a Glance: The Chain and its Performance

Our Added Value

Basically, ARN facilitates the recycling chain based on mandatory matters such as the dismantling of cars and the recycling of extracted fluids and materials and EV batteries. Subsequently, we support all partners in the chains of car and car battery recycling. We share knowledge, connect parties, ensure the quality of recycling, and initiate innovative projects

In doing so, we increasingly focus on promoting higher-quality reuse and recycling. By preserving valuable raw materials more purely, recycled streams can be applied without (or with minimal) loss of value, and we minimize the amount of waste.

Ultimately, we achieve a significant reduction of waste through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse; a sub-goal of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 12. This global sustainability goal focuses on sustainable production and consumption, with more efficient use of raw materials, lower environmental impact, and less dependence on raw materials.

In addition to our focus on technology, innovation, and connecting partners, ARN pays attention to the people in the chain. We therefore invest in knowledge transfer and training regarding the dismantling and processing of car parts and batteries. Clean and safe working practices are central.

The value creation model provides a clear picture of the value ARN adds.

Five Goals for 2027

By 2027, ARN aims to have achieved five goals. The strategy to pursue these goals has a fundamental principle: ARN contributes to the realization of the circular economy of cars and EV batteries, while making itself redundant in the long term.

Strategic Goals:

1. The Chain Intact, Guaranteed!

No matter what, recycling must always be able to continue, even if a chain partner drops out, a contract is terminated, and/or requirements become stricter.

2. Circularity Up, Costs Down

The pressure, importance, and opportunities for increasingly high-quality recycling and reuse are growing.

3. Trust in our role, and understanding of our position

Markets are developing rapidly, and ARN wants to be significant in this. For this, it is crucial that ARN is transparent about how and with whom it is connected and collaborates.

4. Reuse on the rise

The demand for used parts and raw materials is increasing.

5. Rules must work for everyone

ARN implements producer responsibility; we don’t make the rules but do advocate for feasible regulations.

Based on these goals, ARN wants to respond to developments in the market, and where possible, provide answers and contribute. We have described the main lines of these developments below.

The automotive chain has been familiar with the principle of extended producer responsibility for decades. In addition to its sustainable premise, the (economic and political) importance of this is now being felt more, for the sake of raw material independence in our own region.
Both importers and car dismantling companies are undergoing consolidation, resulting in fewer but larger players in the market. The playing field is changing, including the influence that market parties can have on legislation and regulations and developments in the chains.
The requirements and expectations in the area of modular design, reuse, and recycling are being revised and sharpened. This applies particularly to the use of recycled material.
Simultaneously, vehicles are evolving both in composition and technology. For example, electrification has already produced an entirely new chain, that of batteries. New materials are sometimes more difficult to separate. At the same time, cars are lasting longer. The reuse of parts is also more accepted.

It is likely that market parties in the chain will increasingly take responsibility for the phase after a vehicle’s use, including the battery. As a result, in the long term, ARN’s role in facilitating and organizing the chains may be partially or fully taken over.

What our stakeholders think

Both internal and external stakeholders value achieving recycling targets as the most important theme for ARN. Almost equally important is the reliability of figures, as well as the implementation of legislation (Besluit beheer autowrakken and the Besluit regeling voor uitgebreide producentenverantwoordelijkheid). This is evident from research ARN conducted among its stakeholders in 2024.

From the multitude of inventoried themes, a number of topics emerged prominently in the research. For instance, it was considered important that ARN should continue to focus on supporting auto recycling, alongside the rapidly emerging recycling chain for EV batteries. Importance was also attached to supporting safety in dismantling, discharging, and processing batteries. In general, external stakeholders endorse the contribution ARN makes to the circular economy and reducing environmental impact in the chain.

Internal stakeholders include ARN employees, the board, and the supervisory board. The sample of external stakeholders involved various parties listed in the stakeholder overview.

The results of this research are incorporated into ARN’s strategy development and operations and guide the content of this report.

ARN’s relationship network

ARN maintains relationships with many parties. The table provides a non-exhaustive overview of the extensive relationship network.