If you’re considering getting your old scrap or End of Life Vehicle (ELV) disposed of, the most important part of the entire processes is making sure that the company handling the disposal are a registered scrap yard that are going to fulfil all of the legal and safety requirements of disposing of a car in the UK. Make sure to request the licence number from a company and check with Trading Standards if you are unsure about everything.

If you’ve sent your van to a registered van scrap yard and are wondering about the environmental benefits of vehicle disposal, here are just a few things that the safe disposal of a car can help with:

Plastics – The amount of plastic in a standard vehicle has been growing since the mid eighties, but unfortunately many of the plastics of cars (around 11%) is difficult to gain back due to the wide variety of polymer types used. Luckily, Increased identification and sorting means that plastic recycling from scrapped cars is slowly on the rise, and once identified plastics can be easily recycled.

Metals – Over three quarters of the average weight of a car is comprised of steel. Newer cars have a higher percentage of both aluminium and magnesium. Metal has an extremely high rate of recycling with around 98% of all the metal in a scrap car being re-used by the steel industry.

Vehicle Operating Fluids – Waste oil from scrap vehicles is often sent to be used as fuel for power stations, although this is slowly changing as the oil becomes recycled as a base lubricant. Whatever it’s use, waste oil is treated first to avoid environmental contamination.

Batteries – The recycling rate for car batteries is well over 90% and a well established government system is in place for the recovery of standard car batteries. Most garages and councils also have battery collection points in place for consumers – even the casing can be recycled!

Glass -– Glass accounts for just over 3% of the weight of a standard vehicle. Unfortunately the cost of carefully removing laminated glass is expensive and currently the value of glass rarely covers the cost of removal. Toughened glass, which shatters easily, is more commonly recycled.

Tyres –Tires sent to a registered scrapyard could see a variety of uses, from simple re-using part worn tyres to retreading them or using them for energy recovery at power plants. Waste tyres also have a huge range of environmental recycling possibilities – everything from roof tiles to the surfaces of children’s play areas. Unfortunately, nearly 40% of all tires end up being land filled, illegally disposed of or stockpiled.

Although not every single part of a van can be recycled, sending your ELV to a registered scrapyard is the best way of guaranteeing an environmental benefit from your scrap vehicles. It also means piece of mind for yourself as you’ll have all of the legal paperwork regarding the disposal in case proof of scrapping is needed in the future.

A good scrap yard will stripthe van down to pull off as many Van Spares as possible before disposing of the vehicle. Most van scrap yards are happy to take any commercial vehicle, everything from mercedes sprinters to rigid body HGV trucks.

Article Summary:

(more…)

Article Summary:

(more…)

Article Summary:

(more…)

Article Summary:

(more…)

Article Summary:

(more…)

Article Summary:

(more…)

Article Summary:

(more…)

Article Summary:

(more…)

Article Summary:

(more…)