Recycling a Car: 5 Fascinating Facts You Should Know

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Forklift truck lifting and moving a car for recycling

It’s a fact – vehicles are the most recycled consumer product worldwide. Incredibly, most of a car can be recycled. But what happens to scrap cars, and how are cars recycled?

Here at ASM Auto Recycling, we should know. We are an ATF (Authorised Treatment Facility), a centre where cars are scrapped legally. Find out more about the car scrap process with our step-by-step guide.

1: Almost the entire car can be recycled

Did you know that up to 95% of a car can be recycled? Most of the steel is reusable, and some parts can still have a life in other cars. Only a small amount of what goes into a car is hazardous and has to go to landfill.

2: Over 27 million cars are recycled every year

27 million cars are recycled every year globally, accounting for almost all end-of-life automobiles. This is almost half of the 60 million new cars produced annually.

3: A car contains around 30,000 parts – many get a new purpose

It is remarkable to think of just how many parts there are in cars – there are more in petrol and diesel vehicles than in electric cars, and these parts can find uses in many different ways. Tyres can become running tracks, windscreen glass is made into jewellery, and batteries can be turned into X-ray shields.

4: It takes less than a minute to shred a car

The shredding machines at an ATF can turn a car into a piece of metal the size of a small microwave oven in around 45 seconds. Mega shredders can do this in just 10 seconds!

5: Recycling a car is a 5-step process

There is much more to car recycling than just sticking a chassis into a compacter. At ASM Auto Recycling we have an 11-bay workshop fully equipped to safely dismantle, test and clean recycled car parts, as well as state-of-the-art depollution rigs.

Step 1: Depollution

The first step of the car recycling process is depollution – removing any materials and parts that would be hazardous to the environment. All fluids are drained from the vehicle, such as the residue of engine oil, water, brake fluids, petrol and diesel, and flushed out so there are no dangerous substances left.

Step 2: Dismantling

This is when the car is dismantled for the parts that can be recycled. Some parts can still have a life as a whole in another vehicle, while others are disassembled and their materials put to use in other products. Once a car has been dismantled, only the shell of the chassis is left. Many of the parts salvaged are available as part of our used car parts service.

Step 3: Sorting

Before destruction of the vehicle, there might be some final sorting and removal of parts. For example, not all the remaining plastic will be recycled, and a decision will be made on things like the fabric interior.

Step 4: Shredding

Huge shredding machines reduce the chassis of the car to a significantly smaller piece of metal – one that is then ‘detinned’. This means that the thin layer of tin that prevents the steel from rusting when it was a vehicle is removed, so that the steel can be safely melted down.

Step 5: Reuse & Processing

After melting, the steel is rolled into flat sheets, ready to be reused in other industries. Recycling steel is a much cheaper process than producing new steel, so by recycling your car you are helping both the economy and the environment.

Recycle your car with ASM

If your car has seen better days, it might be time to consider scrapping it. Recycling your car with ASM Auto Recycling is a quick, straightforward process. We’ll pay a fair price, handle all the paperwork and collect your vehicle if it’s local enough to us, or you can drop it off at one of our depots (and get a better scrap price).

Get an instant online valuation at ASM today!

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