High-Tech Ways of Dismantling Cars Adopted by Scrapyards Offer New Strategy in Recycling End-of-Life Vehicles

Vehicle-recycling companies transform into advanced recycling operations, turning the car business into a circular industry.

Pioneer Method in Refurbishing Old Vehicles

Recently, environmental and economic concerns related to the vehicle industry have prompted policy makers to consider stricter rules, rising material prices, and supply-chain issues. In addition to these, customers are also more likely to turn into professional mechanics as they can easily purchase car parts from online stores. These platforms offer parts that have already been removed, cleaned, tested, and sometimes guaranteed. Such practice has transformed the once informal and murky business. This has not only led to the demand for used and recycled vehicle parts, but it also turns carmakers into sophisticated recycling lines.

As a response to this challenge, UK-based recycling company Charles Trent has set up a 'deproduction' process for end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). Upon getting fully operational, the plant targets to render over 100 ELVs a day into their constituent parts. Its goal is to disassemble 300,000 vehicles a year which is equivalent to one-fifth of the total number of scrap vehicles in Britain. In total, only 96% by weight of an ELV can be reused or recycled.

To make this possible, the firm will develop a facility that resembles a modern car-assembly line, but the one that runs backwards. The high-tech recycling technique involves the assessment of the vehicle to obtain some reusable or refurbished components. The vehicle is then depolluted while its engines, interiors, panels, gearboxes, and other parts are systematically removed to be recycled or resold. The entire process will be monitored by an elaborate computer system.

Meanwhile, Chicago-based firm LKQ operates 170 dismantling facilities in North America and processes 700,000 ELVs a year. According to the company, the remanufacturing process uses almost 15% as much energy and generates about 30% as much carbon emissions as making a new component from scratch. It is assumed that increasing prices of raw materials and components, as well as supply-chain issues make second-hand parts more appealing. When compared with the new car parts, used components are also found to be up to 70% cheaper.

What are End-of-Life Vehicles?

End-of-life vehicles refer to the automotive parts which have reached the end of their useful and productive stage. Their components are considered waste and can only be disposed or used for refurbishing. They are also referred to as "junk vehicles" or "salvage vehicles".

In Europe alone, ELVs generate about 7-8 million tons of waste every year. When they are not managed properly, ELVs can cause environmental problems. It has been found that ELVs contain dangerous material like waste oil, waste fuels, lead-acid batteries, mercury, cadmium, and nickel. On a global scale, the automotive manufacturing industry is considered as one of the major consumers of main raw materials like aluminum, plastics, steel, and copper, yet makes little use of recycled components.

The process of recycling ELVs differ in each country, although it is almost identical regardless of their legislative management systems. Typically, recycling ELVs involves the processes of vehicle preparation, shredding, separation, recycling, and disposal.