The hugely popular German car-scrapping scheme came under pressure earlier this month when the country's police union, the BDK, found a container in the port of Hamburg full of old cars bound for Africa.
The German government offers a €2,500 subsidy to trade in a car older than nine years for one that is a year old at most.
The BDV estimates that since the scheme began in January, at least 50,000 old vehicles have been exported by criminal gangs after subsidies worth €125 million had been paid for them to be destroyed.
"The risk of being caught is extremely low, as there is hardly any control," BDK Vice-Chairman Wilfried Albishausen told Deutsche Welle.
"When someone is caught, punishment remains minimal [...] There is a market for old cars in Africa and Eastern Europe. And the German scrap industry is in a bad shape and therefore more willing to ignore the law," he added.
In Romania, the government's programme to recycle up to 60,000 old cars has coincided with a wave of second-hand car imports. In July, registrations of imported used cars outstripped those of new cars for the first time, EurActiv Romania reported.
Environmental benefits unclear
While the extent of the problem remains unclear, hopes that an economic incentive could serve a second purpose of climate protection are waning.
The German government decided not to renew the scheme, citing high costs. The Halle Institute for Economic Research calculated that it was costing the government €5 billion euros.
Moreover, such scrapping schemes, which have led to significant rises in new car registrations, have been widely criticised for unfairly boosting the powerful automotive lobby (EurActiv 09/04/09).
The logic that new cars would pollute less than old decrepit vehicles is also failing to convince environmentalists. Most schemes fail to set any ceiling for the amount of CO2 emitted per kilometre by new cars. Where they are in place, like in Portugal, the limits are criticised for being inadequate.
"Under most schemes, an old Fiat Punto could be scrapped and replaced with a Range Rover that emits three times as much climate-threatening CO2," Greenpeace said.
Moreover, concerns have been raised that nothing prevents scrappers from removing parts from old cars before they are crushed. Old engines, for example, can then continue to pollute elsewhere.
