Auto salvage involves removing and reusing working parts from inoperable vehicles, reducing waste and promoting environmental conservation. The process includes pretreatment, appraising and selling parts, and shredding the remaining frame. Up to 76% of a car’s parts can be salvaged.
Auto salvage is the practice of removing and reusing automotive parts from inoperable vehicles, then safely disposing of the parts of the car that cannot be salvaged. This is done in scrapyards, also called car recyclers. This practice prevents the waste of usable parts and materials, and promotes environmental conservation by reusing vehicle components instead of disposing of them in a landfill.
Auto manufacturing is the largest industry in the world. As such, it is also the one that generates the most waste. This waste places a considerable burden on landfills and, by extension, on the environment. The salvage industry tries to mitigate this problem by reusing any part of the car that is still in working order. Up to 76% of the parts in an average car can be salvaged, more than any other complex, mass-produced item.
Ecological autorescue generally has three phases. The first stage, called pretreatment, consists of preparing the vehicle for disassembly. This involves draining all fluids, such as oil, coolant, and fuel, to prevent them from leaking while the vehicle is in the salvage yard and seeping into groundwater. The gas tank, battery and tires are also removed.
The fluids are reused in another vehicle, sold, or transported from the salvage yard to a recycling facility. The battery is also resold or recycled. Gas tanks, once drained, can be recycled as scrap. Tires can be reused in a number of ways: they can be re-threaded, used as ground rubber, or burned for energy at licensed facilities.
The salvage yard can appraise the remaining parts and, depending on their condition, repair or sell them. If an entire car is considered repairable, it can be sold as a whole. Modern auto recovery shipyards use an electronic database to inventory all of their parts and vehicles.
Examples of parts often sought after at salvage yards include entire front or rear ends, body or bumper panels, engines, transmissions, wheels, and electronics, among others. Because buying used parts from one of these facilities is cheaper than buying new, consumers can reduce not only the cost of a repair, but also their insurance rates if the repair in question is an insurance claim. Auto salvage yards also give owners of rare and out-of-production vehicles the opportunity to obtain hard-to-find replacement parts.
Once all salable parts are removed, an auto salvage yard hires a shredder to flatten the vehicle’s frame. The metallic parts can be sold, and the non-metallic parts can be safely put in a landfill.
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