The recovery and disposal of end-of-life vehicles within the EU is regulated by the Directive on end-of-life vehicles (Directive 2000/53/EC) and other relevant statutory matters. The Directive on end-of-life vehicles in consideration of different provisions particularly regulates the withdrawal and the recovery of end-of-life vehicles. Furthermore, in some degree it also intervenes in the production of automobiles through prohibitions of banned material as well as specifications of a recyclable and removable construction. That Directive of the EU develops a europe-wide harmonization of the recovery of end-of-life vehicles. The implementation in the member states however took place in different ways. In Austria, for example, the Directive was implemented by the AltfahrzeugeVO (decree of end-of-life vehicles), the Waste Management Act 2002, the Landfill Ordinance and other relevant laws. The main focus of this paper is the demonstration of the actual situation of the recovery of end-of-life vehicles in Austria and Europe. In this process, beside from Austria also some other countries (Germany, United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Italy) will be discussed specificly. In this context the differentiation of the statutory regularization of the member states are shown. In addition, with the help of some country reports from USA, Japan and the Switzerland, it will be shown how the recovery of end-of-life vehicles is managed outside the EU. Through the demonstration of the current situation of the recovery of end-of-life vehicles in Europe and Austria actual problems are shown, which occur during the implementation of the Directive of end-of-life vehicles. Thereby the problem with the high number of dubious and illegal exports as well as the recovery of end-of-life vehicles in countries with a low economic standard will be discussed. Therefore the industrial recycling of the EU only covers a fractional amount of the cars, which are actually deregistered. Furthermore current procedures for the treatment of shredder residues (preparation of residues, material- and thermal recycling) also will be discussed.