Car recycling – everyone’s doing it right now and most understand it’s all in the name of a good cause. For the most part, people across the UK recycle because they’re told they should, as opposed to fully understanding why it is they do what they’re doing. They of course know it’s a good thing and keeps Mother Earth happy, but in terms of specifics, things are a little thinner on the ground.
So ask yourself honestly – do you really know what kind of difference it makes to recycle a car rather than just confine it to the scrap heap? 
And if you don’t, here’s a quick guide to enlighten you:
A Lasting Legacy
Ok, so the first thing to bear in mind is that while steel will eventually rust and fall to pieces, it technically will never decompose…ever. And in terms of it actually breaking down, let’s just say there are certain steel monuments and statues in the world that are expected to last for about 30,000 years before showing any signs of decay.
So when you confine a car to a heap of any kind for life, you’re not just sending it there for your life – it will be there long after you’re gone!
These days, it’s actually quite tricky to find a car scrapping service that doesn’t do the recycling thing. This comes partly down to a simple lack of available space, though largely down to how recycling steel is a pretty lucrative business. You won’t get much for wandering into a factory with a can in your hand, but if you’re able to come up with a few tons of the stuff every day, you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank!
So as far as scrapping services go, what’s to gain from turning down wads of cash?
The Facts and Figures
So these are the common sense basics as to why recycling cars makes sense, but it’s only when you get to grips with the facts and figures that you really start to understand the difference.
Chucking a car on a scrap heap doesn’t save or contribute to anything positive. By contrast, every single ton of recycled steel saves:
- 75% of the energy that would be needed to make the same ton of first-run steel
- Half a ton of coal
- 1.5 tons of iron ore
- 40% of the water that new steel production would have required
- 80% CO2 emissions
And the list goes on – so few realise just how big the savings can be when recycling steel.
The UK’s steel recycling business alone creates thousands of jobs, cuts pollution in a big way and on the whole makes steel a hell of a lot cheaper – something that benefits largely everyone. And while each home in Britain gets through an average of 600 steel cans per year, one of the biggest contributions to the cause anyone can make is to make sure their car is recycled both fully and responsibly.
