How to Get Rid of Your Car For Scrap?

Do you want to get rid of your car? Do you dream of a “we buy junk cars for $1,000” offer from a reliable provider? Then it becomes what we call an End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV), which is a vehicle that its last owner sends for recycling. Every year, about 1.5 million cars become unusable. At the same time, ELVs are considered hazardous waste. Let’s take a closer look.

End-of-life vehicle: the rules that apply

An ELV is made up of many liquid and solid elements: oil, oil filter, brake and coolant, lead-acid battery, air conditioning fluid, pyrotechnic elements used in airbags or seat belt tensioners, etc.

However, when stored in questionable conditions and handled in a manner that does not meet environmental requirements, ERW can significantly degrade the environment by contaminating soil and water.

Any person wishing to get rid of an end-of-life vehicle destined for destruction can only sell it or hand it over free of charge to a professional who has a demolition or shredding permit. This contributes to the preservation of the environment.

Only an approved professional is authorized to issue you a certificate that will allow you to cancel the vehicle’s registration with the prefecture.

Broken down vehicle: release yourself from liability

Handing it over to an authorized specialist is a prerequisite for obtaining the cancellation of the vehicle registration in your name in the prefecture files, releasing you from liability for repairing the accident, and avoiding any risk of registration theft.

Of course, in order to deliver the car to an authorized pickup point when you find an offer for your “buy junk cars near me” request, it must have all the basic equipment (engine block, etc.). In this case, this operation is free for you.

Please note: Failure to comply with these rules is punishable by a fine of up to 75,000 euros and imprisonment!

Currently, more than 1300 JunkCarsUs specialists (dismantles and shredders) are approved to work with end-of-life vehicles.

The processing of end-of-service vehicles includes two main categories of participants:

1. Dismantles provide vehicle decontamination, recover spare parts for reuse or other use, and perform complete dismantling of the vehicle and its cutting or transfer of the carcass to a shredder.
2. Shredders provide shredding of vehicles after demolition and processing by the demolition company. Shredding allows ferrous and non-ferrous metals to be separated from other components, and these metal elements are then transferred to recycling. More careful sorting after shredding allows other elements to be separated for recycling, such as plastic materials.

Recycling a car cannot be entrusted to just anyone: only these professionals are able to isolate hazardous waste (battery, brake, coolant, oils, etc.) from recyclable waste before sending the carcass to one of the 60 newly approved crushers, which will be responsible for separating the various components to recover them. Recycling,  in general, avoids wasting natural resources and energy, ensures the supply of raw materials, and fights pollution.

Key indicators of car recycling:

• 1.5 million RCDs on average annually;
• 19 years, the average age of an IED;
• 4.25% of the passenger car and LCV fleet in circulation as of January 1, 2020, was written off for scrap in 2019, compared to 4.11% in 2018;
• 20 to 30 parts extracted per vehicle for the second-hand market;
• 87.1% recycling and reuse rate and 95% reuse and recovery rate in 2019;
• 1700 treatment centers;
• 60 approved crushers.

A second life

But what happens to the recycled car parts? Those in good condition can, of course, be resold as spare parts. Depending on the type of vehicle, between 20 and 30 parts are extracted from each CCD for the aftermarket. We are seeing a fairly reasonable increase in the number of parts dismantled per vehicle, directly related to the huge volume of vehicles that have come out of service. Today, there is a tendency to accelerate the dismantling of parts, in particular to meet the growing demand for reused parts. We also noted that almost 9 million parts were computerized on our platforms in 2020, up from 2.5 million in 2015.

In addition, since 2017, consumers must be informed about the availability of circular economy spare parts when repairing or maintaining their cars. Insurers are also using this option to minimize repair costs, even when people buy junk cars for cash from you. Note that these parts are safe, traceable, and, above all, refurbished in accordance with the standard exchange procedure. For the remaining materials, grinding is the second operation. Then the sorting phase begins after grinding: ferrous and non-ferrous metals are separated, as well as various plastics. The extracted materials are finally prepared and cleaned for reuse as secondary raw materials in accordance with the closed recycling cycle.

The electric revolution

New issues are challenging the sector, such as the energy transition. Before they can join the “classic” disassembly lines, electric vehicles equipped with large and heavy batteries have to go through a certain stage: extraction. The delicate operation, which takes about 30 minutes, can only be performed by specialists with a special permit. Thus, the operation takes longer than for a thermal car, but this is not the only difference. From an economic point of view, the result is also not the same. For example, there is no diesel particulate filter or catalytic converter, although these elements are of great value when they can be reused. The electric motor is often recycled due to the lack of demand today. Ultimately, a more expensive electric vehicle will have less value at the end of its lifespan.

Especially because the battery is returned to the manufacturer, who either returns it for reuse or recycles it. But this last stage has yet to be fully mastered by various car brands. Renault, for example, is creating a separate sector and working to improve its material recovery processes, in particular with Veolia. Nissan just announced the development of this sector with plants in Europe this year. Mercedes-Benz is building its own recycling plant at the Kuppenheim plant in Germany, based on hydrometallurgy. This will increase the recycling rate to over 96% while expanding our expertise in creating value for batteries. But such construction will take time. First, a mechanical dismantling plant was built in 2023. Second, hydrometallurgical facilities for processing battery materials should start operating, subject to promising discussions with the public sector.