This research demonstrates that product information is a core pre-requisite to enable the end-of-life vehicle management industry to make environmentally and financially sustainable business decisions. As both case studies respectively illustrate, opportunities to selectively recall defective vehicle parts from the consumer marketplace or to recycle post consumer automotive plastics have been hindered due to a lack of product information.Financial and environmental life cycle-based models were developed to estimate the costs to provide the necessary information to achieve the calculated environmental, social and/or risk management benefits. Although the results of both studies indicate that item-level product identification would enable sustainable end-of-life vehicle management, the costs to provide the information are simply too high. Without the intervention of policy to standardize automotive product labeling and/or increased pressure to enforce sustainable business practices, the end-of-life vehicle management issues outlined in the case studies will not be adequately addressed.