The Most Fascinating Facts About The European Scrap Car Industry
10th May, 2017
The global scrap car industry has some impressive achievements to its name, and we’re happy to say that we definitely pull our weight in Britain towards the industry’s steady progress. In fact, there are some pretty cool facts about the scrap car industry just in the UK and Europe – so many, in fact, that we were a bit spoiled for choice! Here are some of our favourites:
Europe And The UK’s Scrap Car Industry
- At least 1.7 million vehicles are processed each year in the UK
We’re not doing so badly in good old Blighty when it comes to recycling cars. We’re working to European Union directives at the moment – which we may or may not continue doing after Brexit – but we’re having no trouble keeping up with our fellow nations thus far, which is in keeping with our general improvement in the wider recycling industry.
- At least 95% of the average scrap car is recycled, according to EU directives
We’ve come a long way in our various techniques and approaches to harvesting materials from our scrap cars. Only a few decades ago, the scrap car industry was still consigning vast amounts of material to landfill. Since then, though, our technology and attitudes have evolved, and today we’re rescuing all sorts of stuff including plastics, aluminium, glass, rubber, electronics, fabrics, ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Some of this goes on to be used in the construction of brand-new cars, whereas other bits go into new industries entirely.
- UK has steadily increased its recycling targets in line with EU directives all the way up to 2014
OK yes, we’re patting ourselves on the back a bit with this one again, but can you blame us? The new figures won’t be available until December of this year, but by all accounts so far the official stats show that we’ve been steadily improving in our recycling rates for the last few years. The UK went from an 81% recycling rate in 2006 to an 85.5% in 2013. That may not sound like much, but when you consider how many thousands of cars that little percentage gap represents, that’s a whole lot of waste material that’s not being buried!
- You can’t scrap your car for cash
Well, you can, just not in the strictest sense of the word. It was decided some years ago that there was a lack of sufficient regulation in the scrap car industry. This in turn was resulting in a lot of people getting unwittingly ripped off by less reputable companies. In response to this, the Scrap Dealers Act was introduced in 2013, which banned the use of cash payments when scrapping cars. Instead, all transactions have to be handled by bank transfer or BACS (which, in case you’re wondering, is exactly what we do here at Scrap Car Network). This paper trail means that it’s far easier for the authorities to track down the dodgy stuff, and pinpoint the guys who’re tricking people out of money. It’s worth saying this doesn’t affect the prices involved – just the way they’re settled!
- The UK has the largest scrap metal shredder in the world
It’s an enviable claim indeed, but on our humble shores lurks a true metal monster. Originally built by an American company in the early 2000s (at a cost of £10 million), this mighty machine was shipped to Britain shortly afterward, and now resides in a scrap metal dealership in Wales. It’s capable of chewing up 450 cars in a single hour, and consumes so much power that it’s wired directly into the Welsh national grid. Awe-inspiring!
At Scrap Car Network, we can’t pretend to have machines on anything like that sort of scale. But trust us – our equipment does the job just fine. As well as recycling your car in the most efficient, environmentally friendly way possible, we also give an amount to charity. Not bad, if we say so ourselves! Just visit our homepage to enter in your car reg and postcode, and kickstart scrapping your car today!
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