The world of recycling and our ongoing efforts to help the planet recover from the past decades of over use of resources is often concentrated on what waste we produce from the household environment. However, the legislation surrounding the control of end of life vehicles has produced very positive results. We can now consider our local van scrap yard and van breakers to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. The separation of the different materials in the vehicle recycling environment has been the key to the ongoing success.
The local van scrap yard is a business that, like any business, has to make money to survive. When we take our old vehicles to them and receive a small amount of cash for them it can often seem like the amount is almost too small to be bothered with. But when you consider the amazing variety of materials that they must have the facilities to dispose of, you can see that the amount you receive is fair allowing for legislation and profit margins.
The list of materials is quite comprehensive.
Obviously there is Metal, the average car is 76%, by weight and most of this is sheet steel. There are other metals such as aluminium and magnesium and in total about 98% of the metals in a vehicle are recycled.
Plastics are a big part of vehicles and the content of plastics has risen by 25% in the last 20 years. The lightweight nature of this material and its ease of moulding make it an inevitable part of today’s vehicle manufacture. As we all know from our domestic recycling, this material is hard to dispose of and recycle. The wide range of polymer types in the average vehicle means that recycling is difficult and more often than not this gets ground and sent to landfill.
Fluids that help in the operation of the vehicle are a major concern for the environmentalist. The recovery of these fluids is a vitally important part of vehicle dismantling as the inappropriate disposal of oils is a major concern with regard to the environment.
Catalytic convertors are a valuable and as yet under used recoverable product from vehicle dismantling. The unit contains steel and precious metals such as Platinum, rhodium and palladium. The use of platinum and rhodium in Western Europe is almost exclusively centred around the production of catalytic convertors – over 65% of platinum and 90% of rhodium – this makes the business of recovery and disposal a viable and ever growing business.
Batteries are a resource that has been recycled for many decades and as such the average vehicle dismantling yard is well versed in the collection and recovery of this valuable resource. Although it is estimated that 90% are currently recovered and recycled there are still the missing 10% that are thought to still be in the vehicle when it is crushed. Legislation is expected to reduce this occurrence to nearer zero.
There are of course many other materials that need to be dealt with by a vehicle dismantler, but these are the most obvious and constitute the largest portion of any dismantled vehicle.
The van scrap yard has much to contend with legislation being one major factor in everyday business. The best of them also want to go beyond the legislation and do the best that they can do for the planet and the environment. it is no wonder that they are places of mixed feelings for some people, just remember that some of them are run by the good guys.
About United Vans Ltd
United Vans of Bristol have been in the vehicle dismantling business for years. They have a very efficient van scrap yard just outside Bristol. As van breakers they dismantle all types of vans from Mercedes sprinter vans to Toyota Hiace and Hilux. They are always on the lookout for vehicles to dismantle and their sign ‘Mercedes vans wanted‘ is ever visible at their site.
They can be contacted via :
Tel: 01761 452177
Fax: 01761 453993
Email: sales@unitedvans.com
Tags: van breakers, van scrap yard