Admittedly, it is a little out of our jurisdiction. Nevertheless, we believe it raises an important point for the car scrapping and recycling industry in the UK in general.
Members of Fife Council have voiced their concerns regarding an apparent epidemic of scrap cars being abandoned on local streets. According to the most recent tally, more than 3,500 cars have been dumped in and around Fife over the past three years, equating to more than three every day.
Rather than responsibly scrapping their vehicles, motorists are apparently using Fife as something of a makeshift dumping ground.
The question being – why?
As far as local council representatives are concerned, the problem can be attributed to two factors. For one thing, the price of scrap metal has fallen to a level where some are simply not interested in doing the right thing. Rather than scrapping their cars responsibly – even for a lower price – they are choosing to break the law and leave hazardous waste out in public.
The other problem being that a growing number of scrap car dealers and recyclers in the area have actually switched things around and started charging motorists to scrap their cars. Accepting scrap vehicles free of charge would be one thing, but actually charging motorists to dispose of their scrap vehicles responsibly?
If you know anything about Take My Scrap Car, you’ll know this goes against everything we believe in.
“An abandoned vehicle is yet another example of littering and is an act of environmental vandalism,” said Councillor Ross Vettraino.
“People who do so are demonstrating their contempt for the environment and for their fellow human beings with whom the environment is shared. The level of their irresponsibility is quite breath taking,”
“Every single piece of litter is the result of a deliberate action on the part of an irresponsible member of society. Unhappily, littering in general seems to be increasing and is placing an increasing demand on the council’s street cleansing resource,”
“I will be urging the council’s enforcement officers to adopt an attitude of zero tolerance towards such environmental irresponsibility.”
Given the way in which vehicle ownership in general is so bureaucratic in the United Kingdom in general, it’s actually quite shocking that it remains perfectly possible to abandon vehicles these days, without being tracked down and punished accordingly. Nevertheless, the situation in Fife would seem to suggest that even with all the red tape and administrative ownership complications, it is still shockingly easy to abandon cars and make an incredible mess of our towns and cities.
Here at Take My Scrap Car, we operate an entirely different business model that puts the customer first. We firmly believe that the best and perhaps even the only way of solving the UK’s recycling crisis is to make it as easy as possible for people to do the right thing with their waste items. Suffice to say, charging people to scrap their old cars really isn’t the way to go about it.
If looking to get the very best deal on your scrap car and ensure it is recycled responsibly, get in touch with the Take My Scrap Car customer service team today.