What should you do when your car no longer works? Maybe you’ve been in an unfortunate accident, or maybe you’ve been taking care of your car for over 20 years and your last day has just arrived. A popular option for disposing of your vehicle is to recycle it. Auto recycling is one of the oldest recycling programs in the world. People have been taking cars apart for decades and reusing the various parts of them. Once everything is removed from the shell, the car is shredded and the steel sent off for melting down and reuse.
The first place an inoperable vehicle usually ends up is at an auto dismantlement or junkyard. Here the vehicles are sometimes simply cataloged and stored. As they sit in the junkyard, the vehicles are taken apart part by part by people looking for cheap parts for their own cars. A used part from a junkyard is typically 50% cheaper than buying a new part from your local car dealer. However, the actual price of the piece depends on how hard it is to find that piece on the open market. A rare part will obviously be more expensive.
Some salvage yards dismantle vehicles as they arrive and sell the reusable parts.
Generally, the first step in the auto recycling dismantling process is to drain the various fluids from the vehicle. This is a very important step because most fluids in a vehicle are toxic to the environment. Some of the drained fluids can be recycled and some cannot. Gasoline and brake fluids are resold, while power steering and windshield washer fluids are not.
Depending on the type of junkyard doing auto recycling, their operations can include dismantling the vehicle, draining fluids from the vehicles, crushing the car shell, and sometimes even shredding the metal of a car. vehicle. The shredded or shredded metal is then sold as scrap to industrial metal recycling plants. Vehicle plastics are landfilled or recycled whenever possible. All usable drained fluids, parts, batteries and tires are stored in the auto junkyard for resale or disposed of properly.
Environmental pollution is a very real concern for car recycling companies. There are many toxic substances contained within each vehicle. Air, groundwater, and soil can become contaminated during fluid drainage and parts removal. Improper storage of batteries and fluids can also cause environmental problems. This is one of the main reasons that vehicles are typically dismantled outdoors and on paved surfaces where spills can be contained and cleaned up. This also reduces the chance of fires from flammable liquids like gasoline and brake fluid.
Cars also contain other toxic substances such as asbestos, lead, and mercury. Proper handling of these substances is key to keeping them out of the landfill and out of the environment.
When your vehicle has reached the end of its useful life, know that it can be recycled and its parts can be used in other vehicles. Car recycling has been around for decades and it’s very easy to see why it makes so much sense.
