Automotive Recycling is a booming industry. It always will be. There are factors involved that guarantee that it will be a growth business for years to come.
The recent Cash For Clunkers program was hailed by government officials as a huge success. The parts that the vehicles supplied to the market are still being used and resold today. Many of the vehicles turned in for that program were in perfect running condition. The question is whether or not there was more value to those reclaimed automobiles as parts, or as a car that had many years of viable service left in it.
Another way vehicles are recycled is accidents. When automobile owners get in a car accident, it is not an experience they like to remember. Once the accident scene is cleaned up and the insurance company has has determined the vehicle to be totaled, the recycling process begins. The car is put up on an Automotive Lift, and the fluids and hazardous materials are removed from the car and it is stripped of all it’s valuable parts, which are numerous. This process is good for the environment in several ways. First, it helps keep hazardous materials from entering our ecosystem, and second it recycles the many salvageable parts that would otherwise go into a landfill.
Some of the hazardous material that have been removed from the vehicle can many times be recycled as well. Waste oil can be used for fuel in a waste oil heater, Antifreeze, refrigerant, batteries all can be recycled.
Almost every part can be recycled. Everything from the body parts, fenders, doors, windshield, wheels, water pumps, alternators, and any other conceivable part is utilized. Tires are removed by a Tire Changer, and are either resold or shredded for other uses. Finally, the scrap metal is the last component to be recycled. In many cases, the components that are sold equal up to a greater dollar value than the sum of the parts if the vehicle were sold as a whole. Reusing all these parts means that new parts do not have to be created, helping the environment once again.
The recycling industry provides a valuable service and it’s prospects are promising for the foreseeable future as it has has nowhere to go but up.
