You’d be forgiven for assuming that anyone choosing to work in the recycling industry would be as honest as it gets and have the greater good of everyone in mind. You’d also be quite wrong.
Right now, there are more car scrapping and recycling services in business up and down the United Kingdom than ever before. And the vast majority of them are doing a fantastic job, but there will always be the odd ‘bad apple’ in the bunch souring things for the rest of us.
The simple fact of the matter is that if you are sending your car off for scrapping and recycling, you a) want to make sure the job is done properly and b) would prefer to get the best possible deal. As such, Take My Scrap Car highly recommends that you be on the lookout for the following five warning signs, which could indicate that you are walking headfirst into a dodgy deal: 
1 – Charged Services
First of all, regardless of the circumstances and no matter how much they promise to pay you, it is unacceptable to be charged for any of the services on offer. There are so many car scrapping and recycling services these days that continue to charge their customers for collection, transportation, administration fees and so on. Realistically, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever why you should be paying others to take away an asset that still has value left in it, while at the same time doing your ‘bit’ for the environment.
2 – No Payment
Even more common are the services and dealers that will happily take your car away and sort everything 100% free of charge, but will not offer you a penny in return for your vehicle. Once your vehicle has been taken away, it will be processed, stripped, sorted and ultimately sold on as raw materials for recycling. Which in turn means that as the service provider will be making money from your car, it really only makes sense that you should make something from it too. It might not be a lot, but if the service provider is unwilling to guarantee the best possible price paid, look elsewhere.
3 – Cash in Hand
These days, the car scrapping and recycling business in the United Kingdom is more highly regulated and controlled than it has ever been. Which in turn means that full documentation must be produced and retained for each and every vehicle that is scrapped and recycled. This also applies to receipts and evidence in general pertaining to payment. Roughly translated, cash in hand payments for scrap cars with no receipts or paperwork are in every sense illegal – do not accept them!
4 – Licensing and Insurance
In the same vein, it really isn’t as simple as just setting up a website and starting to collect vehicles – thereby calling yourself an official car scrapping and recycling business. Instead, you have to be extensively licensed and fully insured – at least if you want to do the job legally. All service providers should make their status as fully licensed and insured blatantly obvious, but you can always ask for clarification (and evidence) if unsure.
5 – What Next?
Last but not least, EU regulations state that absolutely everything that can be recycled in a car should be. Up to 85% of everything that goes into a car can be recycled, though there will always be plenty of service providers who prefer to simply tear out the valuable stuff and leave the rest to rot. For the sake of your own peace of mind and to know you’re doing the right thing, never work with those who cannot tell you exactly what will happen to your vehicle in great detail, once it has been taken away.
For more information on responsible and rewarding car recycling, get in touch with the Take My Scrap Car team today.
