Second-hand vehicle imports: mobility lifeline or toxic legacy?

Second-hand vehicle imports: mobility lifeline or toxic legacy? (image source)

Every day Zimbabwe’s ports and border posts receive hundreds of second-hand vehicles from markets such as Japan and the United Kingdom affordable transport that underpins livelihoods and public mobility. But environmental and public-health experts warn many imports carry embedded hazardous materials asbestos, mercury switches, lead-acid batteries and contaminated oils that can become toxic waste when vehicles reach end of life.

Customs inspections at entry points like Beitbridge and Chirundu focus on documentation, duties and stolen-vehicle checks; they are not designed to dismantle cars to detect hazardous components. ZIMRA says hazardous-waste control falls under the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), which enforces the Bamako Convention domestically through the Environmental Management Act. In practice, however, vehicle interiors and components are rarely inspected for toxic materials. 

EMA officials have acknowledged enforcement gaps: second-hand vehicles are not routinely examined for hazardous parts, and regulatory attention tends to be reactive, addressing disposal rather than preventing hazardous imports. That enforcement gap shifts the burden downstream to informal dismantlers and scrapyards, where unsafe practices are common.

(image source)

When asbestos brake pads are ground, mercury switches smashed, batteries cracked and oil dumped, toxins enter soil, water and air. Informal recyclers often young men working without protective equipment face chronic exposure to carcinogens and neurotoxins, while communities near scrapyards bear long-term health and environmental costs. 

Experts point to a structural driver: strict ELV (end-of-life vehicle) rules in exporting countries make domestic disposal costly, creating incentives to export older vehicles rather than recycle them at source. The result is an externalisation of environmental risk to importing countries with weaker enforcement capacity.

Practical steps and policy options:

• Strengthen border screening by equipping EMA and ZIMRA with technical capacity to identify hazardous components. 

• Mandate importer responsibility for safe dismantling and disposal, backed by licensing and penalties.

• Scale up HBV-style public awareness and protective-equipment programmes for informal recyclers and scrapyard workers.

  
  

Without policy shifts and investment in enforcement, Zimbabwe risks trading short-term mobility gains for a long-term public-health and environmental debt a silent crisis on wheels that will be harder and costlier to reverse the longer it is ignored.