AUTO RECYCLING
We all know that we need to recycle to help the environment, but behind all the government policies and media rhetoric, not everything is as simple as they claim. One of those is the scrap car recycling scheme that the government has run for the last few years.
The idea is that they give a fixed amount as a scrap car price when trading in scrap cars or scrap vans against a new car or van. But is that really the best thing for the environment as they claim? If you look at any scrap car buyers, you will find that scrap car recycling is not all that it seems. Much of the car, the plastic, glass, fluids and so on, can’t be recycled at all, and so the car recycling London residents, or anyone, get involved with, is leaving a lot of unrecyclable waste.
This is the same as many other recycling schemes, where much of the glass and plastic bottles and other waste you think are being recycled really aren’t. Instead, they just end up in a landfill like a lot of other waste. That’s right, all those bottles you carefully wash and place in the right bin, they just end up with all the other rubbish anyway.
That is because the volumes of plastic are simply too great for the recycling facilities, they don’t have the capacity to deal with the amount of plastic we recycle, so while some do as the ds suggest in up as other bottles and so on, a lot simply gets thrown back into the waste.
That’s annoying, but for car recycling, it’s even more important. While for bottles, recycling is about capacity, for scrap car recycling, it's simply about the will to actually do something. All scrap cars bought for car recycling can be used better than simply recycling the metal bits and sending the rest to a landfill.
Think about this, modern cars are very capable machines, designed to last for years. Not everyone asking how to recycle my car really has a car that scrap car buyers can do nothing with. In fact, with a bit of care and attention, a lot of them can pass an M.O.T and be on the road again. With people and businesses struggling to afford transport in an ever-costlier world, bargain transport should not be just for scrap car recycling, but for real recycling, when it is being reused in its intended purpose.
But that is not all, how many times does a local scrap van buyer or scrap car buyers end up with a vehicle that could still be used in other ways? A lot of people responding to scrap car wanted ads, hoping for car recycling, are getting rid of cars and vans that still have plenty of life left in them. Because sad as it is, sometimes we need reminding that the world is much bigger than just this country.
All over the world, people are facing real challenges, including climate change that is reshaping their homes, where new vehicles are not affordable nor suitable. Easily maintained older cars, such as those that scrap car buyers are using for car recycling, are an answer. What we may think of as scrap cars and scrap vans that are only fit for car recycling schemes could be put to use in harsh conditions elsewhere. There, these scrap cars and scrap vans could provide maintainable, cheap transport that could transform lives.
This focuses on just what recycling actually means. Is the best car recycling simply putting half of the car in a landfill and recycling the rest to make something else? When I recycle my car, I don’t want to scrap my car like that, I would like to recycle my car and find a way for all of it to be reused. As far as any of us can really understand climate change and the environment, what is very clear is that this is a global problem, and we need to think globally for answers. I think that car recycling should involve the entire car being reused. Scrap cars are just cars that need some work, so why not find places that could reuse our scrap cars and scrap vans, real car recycling, instead of what we have now?
Often the excuse given is that older cars are not as clean running as the very latest cars, you see that on all the car recycling ads. But that may be true when both are on the road, however, it doesn’t include the emissions used to build the replacement car or van. A scrap car has already been built, car recycling could allow it to continue to be used somewhere in the world, and it is good for the environment. That is because it would need much more energy and fossil fuels to make a new car to fulfil the need a supposedly scrap car could fulfil.
Car recycling needs to become something more than a way to knock some money off the price of a new car, which is what the government car recycling scheme is. It needs to be something that helps others, whether at home or abroad, and makes full use of the scrap cars and scrap vans that we have in the country, and instead recycle them as vehicles that still have a use.
The best way to reduce the environmental impact of the car industry is to build fewer cars. Even with electric cars, the use of materials and energy to make the thing is much larger than the emissions generated once in use. Car recycling, providing good, useful vehicles at home or in other countries, instead of our current scrap car and scrap van schemes, is a much better way to combat environmental issues.
Next time you see a scrap car recycling offer, think about what it means. Car recycling is currently not what we think of like recycling, but it could be. Car salvage buyers and scrap car collection services could make a real difference if we just changed the way we think of car recycling today.
AREAS WE COVER
✔ Hounslow
✔ Staines
✔ Kingston
✔ Slough
✔ Woking
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✔ Ealing
✔ Harrow
✔ Leatherhead
✔ Croydon
✔ London
✔ Surrey
✔ Berkshire
✔ Wembley
✔ Walton-On-Thames​
✔ Southall
✔ Uxbridge
✔ Twickenham
✔ Feltham
✔ Ashford (Surrey)
✔ Windsor