The European Union also sets an incredibly difficult goal for vehicle recycling (known as scrap car recycling) in the motor industry. It was decided that with some changes in the manufacturing process and how the “end of life vehicle” is handled, 95% of the materials used to make a car should be recovered and reused when scrap cars are recycled. With lots of steel and aluminum in scrap cars, recycling rates are already fairly high as we have already recovered about 85% of the materials but the latest figures from the European Union show that the UK has been able to cut this number to 96.9%. To understand how the UK is leading through scrap car recycling, let’s take a look at the journey of scrap car recycling.
A new approach to recycling scrap cars
However, by 2015 the UK had assumed that the EU indicator was actually expected to recycle 95% of the material by September 2000, and this represented a staggering approach to reaching this high rate of material recovery. EU states were expected to reach a recovery rate of 85% and the 15–year overall window was designed to allow new manufacturing processes and materials to complete their lifecycles as vehicles before handling European scrappers.
Higher standards for recycling scrap cars
In response to the European Union’s new directive, the UK government introduced the The–of–Life Vehicle Regulation in 2003, introducing this broad section of requirements for registered authorized treatment facilities for scrappers. As well as following strict environmental regulations, approved treatment facilities will become the only scrap car recycling facility that can officially destroy excess–low voltage. To make the demolition process official, a ‘Degree of Certificate of Destruction’ (COD) was issued to the driver and the vehicle licensing agency, requiring the necessary documents to be issued and the vehicle was destroyed and sent to the authority’s medical facilities. Now around the extra low–voltage process, this scroll means cars don’t catch any cracks; each scrap vehicle will be subject to the same official procedure conducted in a prescribed manner by authorized cancellation. If you have a junk car you can contact Car Removal Brisbane to get a good offer for your junk car. So that you can easily recycle your car and earn good money.
Deterioration
When your vehicle arrives at the ATF, any hazardous liquids or substances are removed from the vehicle. Typically, this will include:
Petrol/Diesel
Engine oil
Battery
Engine coolant
Brakes and transmission fluid
Windshield washer liquid
These need to be carefully removed and handled properly. With millions processed each year in the UK, millions of gallons of dangerous liquids are likely to be saved from environmental damage if handled recklessly. Sometimes, these substances will be removed from the site and handled by a specialist agency, but it is not uncommon for scrapers to have approved treatment facilities for processing at these sites. For example, many approved treatment facilities for scrapers will use specialist storage solutions that allow for a “reverse osmosis” process that captures chemical elements and involves hazardous fluids in a membrane that releases clean water. The fluid removal and handling systems that hold these fluids in the vehicle ensure that there is no sign of any impurity before the vehicle is removed in the next part of the process.
Eviction
As soon as the car is cleaned of hazardous substances, the process of breaking it down can begin. Typically, this will involve very little catalyst converter, tire, and glass removal from the car. Tires can be particularly harmful to the environment if they are not recycled properly, so they will be referred to a specialist agency that will handle them. Reuse is the name of the game with tires and many become soft floor coverings for playgrounds and playgrounds. The catalytic converter will receive special attention, not least because the filters inside contain a lot of precious metals that help in the extraction filtering process. These precious metals can be reused in many applications from treatment devices to jewelry. With the removal of these parts, the facility will decide whether the car has been crushed and cut or whether more parts have been removed intact and restored for resale.
Destruction and recovery
The car looks a bit like a car until the demolition stage, but expert hydraulic presses and industrialists will soon replace it. After removing some or all of the parts from the vehicle, it will be compressed and fed into a high–powered cradling machine where the hardened components of the steel will also turn into small parts about the size of your hand. Since many car parts are coated in tin to prevent debris, using these coatings more easily will result in a “bath” of chemical baths to remove the coating. The torn parts are again separated from the car Most of the materials are usually sold in the manufacturing industries, creating a further circular economy surrounding the motor industry. Of course, not everything is neatly packaged and reused, but with the development of technology left–over plastic, rubber, fiber, and glass can also be reused. These ‘left–over’ materials are referred to as Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR) and there are specialised companies such as Cash for car that can use this material to process and make synthetic crude oil to reduce some pressure on the planet’s natural reserves.
Driving forward recycling
They may not see it at a glance, but recycling scrap cars that have broken down and the yards actually help the industry move forward like never before and the process will become more efficient as new manufacturing processes enter additional low voltage systems. We are not at a stage where a truly practical car can be 100% reusable or recyclable, but we are moving closer to fully sustainable transportation as more manufacturers acknowledge their environmental responsibilities.
