Abstract:
There is a growing evidence that some older cars are smuggled to the country, which is
likely to cause serious environmental effects since the rise of the older motor vehicle
population in the country results in the volume of ELV waste and hence the need to assess
the ELV waste streams, especially in Nairobi City County of Kenya. Therefore, this study
aimed at assessing the End-of-Life Vehicles’ (ELV) Environmental Management Systems
in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The study used mixed research method and a sample size
of 62 firms comprising of 32 garages, 15 insurance firms, and 15 salvage companies was
selected from Nairobi City County, on a stratified basis combined with the convenient
sampling technique. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the required
information from firm owners and/or managers, and descriptive statistical techniques
comprising of frequency tables, percentages, pie charts, and bar graphs were used to
summarize, present, and analyze the information in an informative way. The practices
employed to manage ELV waste included contracting salvage firms to collect written off
vehicles by insurance companies, recycling of salvaged parts, selling the usable parts to
dealers of vehicle parts and disposal of non-salvageable parts including hazardous products
via firm mechanisms such as collecting the material and putting fluids in tanks and
disposing them off in designated dumpsites. Research findings indicated that ELV waste
products associated with three waste streams (insurance firms, garages, salvage companies)
can be grouped into three categories, comprising of recyclable waste (metals and plastics,
car batteries, and rubber tyres), non-recyclable (spoilt seat covers and sponges), and
hazardous (various car fluids including waste fuel, engine oil transmission, power steering,
and brake fluids, coolant, lubricants, solvents, degreasers, and acid from batteries). It is
recommended that stringent waste management policies and guidelines for the salvage
companies and garages should be put in place to mitigate against environmental pollution.
