Background Because of the multitude of different materials they are made from, end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) and electronic equipment (waste electrical and electronic equipment: WEEE) are especially hard to recycle. These two waste streams alone account for some 8 million tonnes of waste per year in Europe. Some ELV and WEEE components, such as glass and metal parts, can be recycled fairly easily. A recycling percentage of 80% can therefore be easily obtained. The challenge lies in the recycling or reuse of the remaining 20%, which is mostly automotive or WEEE shredder residue (SR), consisting of plastic, rubber and other substances. Recycling of SR is not common practice, for the following reasons: Lack of value of SR, and the low cost of landfilling of certain waste streams; and Lack of proper recycling facilities to handle the additional separation of the waste. Notwithstanding these problems, EU legislation requires 95% of the ELV waste stream to be recycled by 2015. To further recycle SR, which is currently regarded as valueless waste, and to approach the 95% level, new technologies and processes are required. Objectives The SRNEXT_4_LIFE project would demonstrate an integrated recycling solution for automotive and WEEE shredder residue. Using an innovative separation process, this solution would have been able to separate and increase the recycling efficiency of SR waste streams to 97%, thus surpassing the 95% objective fixed by the European Union's ELV legislation. The process would be demonstrated in a first full-scale application. The beneficiary would establish and demonstrate additional separation steps to recycle minerals and black plastics from SR. Finally, the organic residues resulting from this process would have been used to make energy pellets. Once the integrated recycling solution would be implemented and demonstrated, the project would assess its cost-effectiveness, technical feasibility, and the environmental benefits that might derive from it. Expected results: The project expected to achieve the following results: A fully constructed and tested automotive and WEEE SR waste recycling plant with a recycling efficiency of 97% and an eventual capacity of 150 000 tonnes/yr; Demonstration that the plant is capable of separating and recovering metals, non-ferrous material, non-recyclable plastics, wood and currently valueless waste streams such as black plastics, minerals and compressed fibres; and Fabrication of energy pellets from the organic residues.Results The cooordinating beneficiary requested early termination of the project.