Choosing an eco-friendly method of disposal for your car doesn’t only help save the earth; it can also let you feel great about your environmental footprint and even put a little money in your pocket. Unlike a typical junkyard, a salvage yard really focuses on wringing every scrap of value and resources out of your car, minimizing its end-of-life impact on the environment.
Here are five ways a salvage yard can make your car disposal more eco-friendly.
1. Providing Reclaimed Auto Parts
Just because a car is totaled doesn’t mean it won’t still have usable parts. Often, a car will have such extensive body damage from a wreck that it’s not cost-effective to repair, but most of the engine still has thousands of miles to offer. Salvage yards sell still-functional parts to be used in car repairs, decreasing the demand for new car part manufacture.
A salvage yard can be an excellent resource for car parts, whether you employ a backyard mechanic or are one yourself or you simply fix up old cars for fun. But even if you don’t work on cars yourself and rarely need repairs because you buy new cars frequently, taking your car to a salvage yard contributes to the used parts available, further reducing demand for new parts.
2. Keeping Materials Out of Landfills
Scrap materials from even a badly wrecked or completely worn-out car can still have some uses, and putting them into a landfill or a regular junkyard would be irresponsible. And in fact, most of the materials used for cars don’t break down well in landfills. Some plastics take hundreds and hundreds of years to break down, and glass might not decompose even after a million.
3. Providing Recycled or Remanufactured Material for New Cars
Sending your old car to a salvage yard can help environmentally offset the production of your new car. That’s because, in addition to providing used parts for car repairs, your car may have other materials that can be recycled to make new car parts. Others can be fixed up (remanufactured) and sold for reuse. For example:
- Old tires can be recycled into new tires with recycled content (although they’re more often used in asphalt for roadways).
- Coolant from your car’s AC system can be collected, then recycled, and eventually end up as new coolant fluid.
- The steel components of your car can be recycled, then used as raw material for new steel components of other cars.
As you can imagine, the huge influx of recycled materials from end-of-life cars helps to reduce the automotive industry’s demand for new materials such as steel and aluminum.
4. Disposing of Hazardous Materials Responsibly
If you find a qualified, well-established, and well-connected salvage yard, they’re likely to be able to send off most of your vehicle’s fluids (such as engine oil) for recycling. Any that don’t get recycled will still need to be disposed of responsibly.
For example, any light switches that contain toxic mercury require special handling to prevent environmental contamination and possible toxic effects to humans or wildlife. Unlike typical junkyards, an environmentally minded salvage yard can ensure that these and other hazardous items are disposed of correctly.
5. Offering Repair Parts Locally
A salvage yard may even be the only feasible option for part sourcing if you’re trying to repair a model that the company no longer supports. But even if you can order repair parts from the company, choosing to find them at your local salvage yard instead can be the most eco-friendly option because it means they won’t have to be shipped from some faraway destination.
Remember, finding a reputable, qualified salvage yard is key. AAA Trucks and Auto Wreckings is well known and can offer very favorable deals on both salvaging services and used parts. Give us a call today for more information.