Car Recycling

Are you looking to recycle your vehicle? Read our car recycling guide here to find out the MUST KNOW information on scrapping your car. If you are wondering about how much you can get for recycling your car, get a quote from us within minutes. Fully understand the car recycling process and get in touch.

ASM metal recycling plant with two grab cranes

Why might you consider recycling your car?

There comes a time in the lifespan of any road vehicle that it reaches the end of its safe, usable life. If your vehicle is starting to age badly, has failed its MOT for a plethora of reasons, or is starting to emit dangerously high levels of CO2 into the atmosphere, it’s probably a good time to recycle your car.

Of course, scrapping cars is nothing new; we’ve been doing it for decades. However, attitudes towards car recycling have changed considerably in recent times. This is due to the environmental impact of scrapping cars in landfill sites and the financial cost of wasting existing materials and creating new materials.

The End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) Directive was introduced to ensure that the waste produced by recycling older vehicles was maintained at sustainable levels. Primarily, car recycling should not only help to remove and store potential toxins from ELVs, it should also breathe new life into used car parts that can continue to be used on other vehicles.

Scrap Your Car

We buy any vehicle in any condition, with a price guarantee – we pay what we say!


Car recycling process explained

There are six key stages that we go through at ASM Auto Recycling when recycling cars of all makes and sizes:

Depollution of vehicles

Each ELV we accept is taken to one of our state-of-the-art vehicle dismantling facilities, which allows our specialists to drain completely all fluids within a vehicle. This includes petrol, oil, anti-freeze, brake and transmission fluids, not to mention its various lubricants. All of these liquids are safely stored, before being shipped to processing plants.

Restoration of reusable car parts

Any car parts that can be reused are removed, cleaned up and restored to roadworthy condition. Each used car part available from ASM Auto Recycling is given a 90-day guarantee, offering customers genuine peace of mind. The amount of reusable car parts will vary depending on the age of the car being recycled, but rest assured any available will be added to our online used car parts catalogue.

Safe disposal of car parts that cannot be reused

Any car parts that cannot be reused and re-sold – e.g. car batteries or bald tyres – are removed and safely stored or disposed of, depending on how hazardous they are.

Compacting and shredding of metals

The chassis of an ELV and any other remaining parts are then fed into a crusher machine to compact the metals, before being put through a shredder.

Separation of vehicle metals

Once the car’s metals have been comprehensively shredded, we separate all of the metals into ferrous and non-ferrous materials. Meanwhile any remaining residue – e.g. glass, plastic or foam – is disposed of responsibly in line with the ELV Directive.

Scrap metal melting

Last but by no means least, the scrap metal — once sorted — is melted down ready to be reused again for various other purposes.


Frequently asked questions about recycling your car

Most scrap cars are valued between £100 and £300. This can be very useful cash in your bank account if you need funds to put towards a replacement vehicle. Remember, it’s important to resist the temptation to remove any parts from your scrap car. The cars with the highest scrap values will have all of their original parts intact. That’s because vehicle recyclers, like ourselves at ASM Auto Recycling, prefer to recycle and restore used components wherever possible to limit the amount of new metals and materials needed to create new or replacement car parts across the UK.

At ASM Auto Recycling, we’re committed to paying a highly competitive price for your scrap vehicle. We also make a price guarantee on all the cars we quote for – providing the vehicle is exactly as described, we pay what we say!

There are so many parts of an end-of-life car that we pay for to recycle. You only have to look at our array of used car parts, which now amounts to more than 250,000 restored, guaranteed components, ready to be fitted into another roadworthy vehicle. Below are some of the more surprising car parts that ASM Auto Recycling is happy to pay for to recycle:

  • Used engine oil (it can be cleaned and reused!)
  • Oil filters
  • Windscreen glass
  • Vehicle engines
  • Car batteries
  • Vehicle tyres
  • Alternators and starters
  • Plastics
  • Scrap metals

If you own a car that has plastic bumpers, these should be recyclable, particularly in one of our state-of-the-art vehicle dismantling facilities. We can remove plastic car bumpers and recycle them, turning them back into plastic for alternative uses. Most modern-day bumpers are made from a combination of polyamides, polycarbonates, polypropylene and polyurethanes.

You are not legally obliged to have your V5C registration certificate (log book) to hand in order to scrap your car. Nevertheless, there’s no doubt it is a lot easier if you do have it. It’s still possible to apply for a replacement log book with the DVLA at a cost of £25.

Alternatively, if you’d rather not pay for a replacement log book, you can still proceed with recycling your car, but there are a few things you’ll need to do:

  1. Make sure you recycle your car at an Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF). Luckily, ASM Auto Recycling’s dismantling facilities are all ATFs, giving you peace of mind and ensuring you won’t face a fine for using an unauthorised location.

  2. Write to the DVLA, informing them of the scrapping, stating your vehicle registration number, its make and model, the date of sale and the name and address of the vehicle recycling firm. If you recycle your vechile with ASM, we handle all the paperwork for you.

  3. Those wishing to retain their licence plate after scrapping their car must register to keep it prior to scrapping, at a cost of £80.

All potential toxins within an end-of-life vehicle are removed and stored during the vehicle dismantling process. Some of these toxins cannot be reused again and instead are sent to a processing plant to be disposed of in the most environmentally-friendly manner.

Generally speaking, we will accept almost every type of car. This includes those that have naturally reached the end of their working life, to those that have been written off by insurance firms. Typically, there are no vehicle manufacturers or models that we refuse at ASM Auto Recycling. The chances are, whatever car you wish to recycle, we’ll pay you a fair price to dispose of it properly.

Of course, if you are concerned whether or not we will accept your car for recycling, you can always contact our friendly, experienced team on 01844 268 940 and select Option 3.

No problem. Our team is well-equipped to collect end-of-life vehicles as well as those that aren’t considered roadworthy, ready for recycling. With a fleet of vehicle transporters, our team retrieves vehicles from across Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.

Contact our team today to arrange for a collection date and time that’s most convenient to you.

Recycle your car with ASM Auto Recycling

ASM Auto Recycling is one of the best-equipped car recycling operators in the UK. Our 11-bay state-of-the-art workshops are designed to handle the dismantling, testing and cleaning of all end-of-life vehicles, in line with the ELV Directive.

  • Over 40 years of car recycling expertise
  • We process over 30,000 end-of-life vehicles a year
  • Vehicle transportation services available
  • Get an industry competitive price for your scrap car
  • Fully compliant with the ELV Directive