Here at Take My Scrap Car, you’ve probably noticed by now that we’re always banging on about how the UK could and should be doing more to increase its efficiency and its recycling output. We know we’re heading in the right direction, but we’re still about a million miles away from perfect and there’s more we could all be doing to help the cause.
That being said though, we’re also just as keen to offer a tip of the hat in the direction of any news that suggests progress is being made, which tends to happen on an encouragingly regular basis at the moment. As for the latest piece of news to come out of the industry, it seems that the UK’s scrapping and recycling industries as a combined collective are already well on their way to hitting the EU’s latest targets, which specify that a full 95% of all cars ending their lives on the roads must be either put back into use in some way or recycled. 
That’s 95% of a full million cars every year being put back to use in the UK alone – you can’t deny that’s pretty good going!
One of the key parts of the new protocol laid out by the EU states that of the 95% of cars that are recycled, at least 85% of all the material within the car itself needs to be properly reused or responsibly recycled. This marks a significant and important step up from the 80% guideline that’s been followed by most over recent years, serving as a much-needed tap on the shoulder to those that weren’t and perhaps still aren’t measuring up to the mark.
Industry experts and economists have universally praised the new push, though admitted that it will for some time put a pretty big strain on some of the lower-level entities that are already struggling to keep up. For some it may be a case of lowering their capacity and sending jobs elsewhere, while others will have no choice but to put in the extra effort required to hit that all-important 85% mark.
Here at Take My Scrap Car, we’ve always operated in the same way and have no intention of changing at any time in the near future. That’s because it’s always been our way of doing things to make sure that we recycle or put back into use every last shred of every car we receive. We personally reckon that this 95% target technically isn’t high enough as with a million cars being taken off the roads in the UK every year, that’s still a full 50,000 vehicles that are not being properly disposed of.
Exactly where they end up is anyone’s guess, but suffice to say it’s nowhere good!
So, for today at least it’s all a very reassuring tale and reason for the UK’s car scrapping and recycling industries to celebrate. We may not quite be at the level of 100% perfection, but 95% is still better than we’ve ever been at any time in history.
Well done, one and all!
