The green movement has gathered momentum in the recent years. This has brought automotive recycling ‘industry’ in the limelight. What was once looked on as a salvage yard where cars were dumped has now evolved into a full-blown industry for reusing most auto parts. Car parts are recycled extensively with the help of auto wreckers who salvage each and every part of the car.
Reasons for the growth of auto recycling:
1. Technological Advancements:
Technology has introduced ways to recycle most auto parts that were earlier discarded. There are processes that convert parts that cannot be reused ‘as is’ into other useful products. For instance, tires are now processed for making pavements, etc, glass from cars is recycled to produce products such as tiles, counter-tops, etc.
2. Environmental Pollution:
A car is a large structure and if abandoned it will occupy our precious landfill. Besides a car has parts such as tires, windshields, and others made of non-biodegradable material. These also cannot be allowed to lie as waste material on the land. Cars contain various chemicals and fluids. If cars are not disposed of, these toxic chemicals will seep into the surrounding environment. This will contaminate the water bodies affecting our drinking water and the aquatic life. If cars are not recycled, they will have an overall negative impact on human and plant life.
3. Huge market for recycled auto parts:
Functional parts of cars are carefully removed and are sold in the market. There is a huge market for recycled car parts because these parts serve as spare parts at low prices. Many a time they are the only option for spares (as in the case of vintage cars). Car manufacturers design parts with long life. So, even when the car is discarded, these parts can be reused. Since these parts are extracted from original cars, they provide a good fit.
4. Saves Natural Resources:
Auto recycling drastically cuts down the number of new parts to be manufactured. This has a positive impact on our natural resources. By recycling steel, plastics, etc, we reduce the energy and water consumption to a large extent. Additionally reusing different materials from cars reduces the need to manufacture them from scratch. This reduces the environmental pollution that results due to the fabrication of products from scratch.
Thus we see that by recycling an end of life car, an auto wrecker does a service not only to the owner of the discarded car but also to the environment.
