As car sales are rising, naturally, more cars will be ending up in scrap heaps. It is estimated that there are more than one million cars crushed per year.
Peter Quinn, owner of Emerald Car Sales believes that the rise in car scrappages will affect the car sales industry as part exchanges will become less common, making it more difficult for stock to be obtained.
When you get your car scrapped, it must be done legally by an Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF), but you may find yourself wondering what happens when you send your vehicle off to be scrapped.
In the first step of the Vehicle Depollution Process the hazardous materials are taken away. The lead battery is detached first, as the batteries contain the most material that is hazardous to the environment.
The tyres are then removed and recycled. Although, in this process, care must be taken with the storage of the material as tyres can burn for days if they catch fire.
The liquid petroleum gas tanks are also very hazardous and are therefore removed. Following this, the air bags are removed, along with the seat belt pre-tensioners.
The next step is to ensure that all the vehicle’s hazardous liquids are disposed of. This is one of the most important parts of the process because if these liquids are not properly eradicated, they could contaminate the soil and pollute water supplies.
In a driver’s time on the road, the car’s catalytic converter will mix with a large amount of different pollutants. This will be extracted and dealt with.
After making sure that the car is completely de-polluted, the car is ready to be crushed.
When crushed, all the car’s fibres, metals and plastics will be separated from each other and then recycled individually.
If you decide to go down the route of scrapping your car, it is a relatively straightforward process. You can easily find yourself a respectable company online that will be able to scrap your car.
The alternative to this is donating it to charity. Then, the scrap value can be used for charitable causes.
Take note that before the scrappage of your car, you are legally obliged to notify the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) and it is also against the law to be paid in cash for your car being scrapped. The payment must go through a bank transfer or a PayPal transfer.
