Category: Auto Recycling

Since the middle of the recent recession, GM has had lots of financial ground to make up. While the obvious way to improve its finances would be to sell more vehicles, the automotive giant isn’t depending on car sales alone to put it back in the financial driver’s seat. The company is also lining its sizable coffers with income earned from recycling various types of automotive waste.

Turning Waste Into Revenue

Since 2011, GM has operated an auto recycling program that focuses on recycling or reusing automotive materials that would otherwise be sent to a landfill. Examples of materials that fall under program’s umbrella include: scrap steel, paint sludge, cardboard packaging, and worn-out tires, just to name a few.

In some cases, GM repurposes the materials on its own, finding new ways to use them for autom manufacturing, but it also sells products that it can’t recycle to businesses that can. These endeavors earn the auto manufacturer roughly $1 billion annually in terms of cost savings and revenue streams that come from selling recyclables to third parties.

$1 billion dollars seems like a lot of money for a company to earn from an auto recycling program, but when you consider the amount of automotive waste that GM diverted from landfills in 2011 alone (about 2.5 million metric tons), it becomes easy to see how the company posts such a high profit from being fully committed to recycling anything and everything it can.

Additional Program Benefits

According to Two Tomorrows, a San Francisco-based sustainability consultant, GM recycles 90 percent of its auto manufacturing waste worldwide. In addition to helping the company’s bottom line, recycling and reusing so much waste benefits the environment in at least two ways: it reduces landfill use and emissions that result from the steel manufacturing process.

In the U.S., GM currently sells a large percentage of its scrap steel — most of which comes from  leftover steel cutouts — to steel fabricating company Blue Star Steel. This allows the long-time steel fabricator to bypass metal foundering operations for producing several types of steel parts, and thus reduces greenhouse gas emissions that result from the metal foundering process.

Interested in Recycling Your Car?

Among major automakers, GM leads the way in the area of recycling automotive waste, but it isn’t the only company that impacts auto recycling statistics. Professionally operated junkyards also contribute to auto recycling by purchasing salvage automobiles, selling their useful parts to consumers, and then selling or donating leftover materials to recyclers.

This is how Wrench-A-Part operates. If you have an old, wrecked, or mechanically undependable vehicle that you wish to recycle, we may be interested in taking it off your hands. If so, you have two options: you can donate the car, or let us pay you for it. In either case, we’ll send one of our tow trucks to your location and tow away the automobile for free.

For more information about how Wrench-A-Part participates in auto recycling, or to find out how much your vehicle is worth, call one of our locations today, or simply fill out our contact form.

 

Vehicle recycling has recently become more popular with the general public, thanks in part to the success of the green movement, but the U.S. auto recycling industry has existed for 75 years. Today, auto recycling is the 16th largest industry in the U.S. and generates about $25 million in annual revenue. There are currently about 7,000 auto recycling businesses throughout the U.S.

How the Recycling Process Works

Each year, automobile recycling yields enough steel to produce nearly 13 million new vehicles. To achieve this number, vehicle recyclers use a multi-step process to repurpose the renewable materials from cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, and other modes of transportation. Below is a basic outline of the steps that auto recyclers take when they embark on recycling a vehicle.

Step 1: Remove Engine Fluids

Before the recycling process officially begins, fluids are removed from recyclable vehicles to ensure that they are properly disposed of. Because the recycling process often begins at junkyards that sell used auto parts, a junkyard may choose to remove fluids on its own.

In addition to expediting the recycling process, removing engine fluids can make vehicles safer for junkyard customers to remove parts from. Removing engine fluids can reduce the chance of fires developing in the salvage lot, and protect customers from inhaling noxious fumes.

Step 2: Remove Useable Parts

For auto recycling companies, having recyclable automobiles go to a junkyard first can reduce the time and energy that are required to break down the scrap metal and send it to a recycler. Furthermore, parts that a recycler may not be interested in acquiring (e.g. plastic reservoirs, rubber hoses, and tires) are often removed by junkyard customers to use for their vehicles.

Step 3: Shred the Vehicle Frame

After a vehicle has had useful parts removed, as well as components that may not be recyclable (e.g. batteries, certain grades of plastic, and seating covered with synthetic fabric. After these components are removed, a recycling company puts the remaining scrap metal in a vehicle shredder that magnetically separates metal fragments into ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

Step 4: Mix Metals Together

Before for scrap metal is forwarded to automakers, it is combined with other metal to strengthen the scrap metal, and prepare it to be molded into a new automobile frame. Based on research by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), “Over 14 million tons of steel from end-of life vehicles was recycled and reused in 2014 — a number that has grown in the past decade.

Step 5: Send to Manufacturers

After the scrap metal is mixed with other metal, it is returned to auto manufacturers, so they can produce new car frames that are likely to be used to help produce an upcoming line of vehicles. Using recycled metal from vehicles helps manufacturers because it doesn’t cost as much as buying new metal. It benefits the steel industry by reducing emissions at production plants.

Interested in Recycling a Vehicle?  

If so, sell or donate your end-of-life vehicle to Wrench-A-Part. We play an active role in the recycling process by selling used parts from junk cars. The fewer parts a car contains when it heads to a shredding facility or a vehicle recycler, the less work is required to process the recyclable metal into new metal that the auto recycling industry can use directly.

For more information about the process of recycling a vehicle, contact one of our Texas locations in Austin, Belton, and Lubbock. We look forward to speaking with you!

After they reach the end of their useful life, most vehicles are recycled in one capacity or another, but there are certain types of vehicles that are riper for the recycling process than others. If you own one of the following types of vehicles, you can contribute to the auto recycling process by selling or donating it to a junkyard that participates in recycling automobiles.

Vehicles With Salvage Titles

A vehicle that has a salvage title is difficult to sell to someone who needs a reliable car for transportation. This because a salvage title indicates that the vehicle has been seriously damaged in some way or declared to be “totaled” after an auto insurance company inspects it. Even so, you could still earn hundreds of dollars from the vehicle by selling it to a junkyard.

Vehicles That are Totaled

A car that is “totaled” would cost more to repair than it would sell for on the fair market. Consequently, these automobiles are often sold to a junkyard that participates in the auto recycling process. Unless your car is destroyed to the point of no longer possessing useful components, it probably has value to a junkyard that participates in auto recycling.

Legal Lemon Vehicles

From the time they leave the production line, lemon vehicles have a mechanical defect that can’t be repaired in a certain number of tries within a certain number of miles. Different states have different laws for lemon vehicle status. In most cases, the problem must try to be repaired 2-3 times, and the repairs must usually occur before the odometer reaches 18,000 miles.

Many junkyards like lemon vehicles because it’s easy to remove the defective component and sell the rest of the components to consumers. Recyclers also like lemon vehicles because the recyclable materials on the automobiles seldom contain rust or other corrosion. You shouldn’t sell a lemon vehicle as a used vehicle, but you can sell it to a junkyard that embraces recycling.

Vehicles That Haven’t Run for Years

In terms of its value to auto recyclers, the age of a vehicle is often of little concern. As long as the car’s recyclable parts haven’t oxidized to the point of being highly corroded, an auto recycler can salvage the parts and refine them into alloys that auto manufacturers can use to create new vehicles.

Contact-Wrench-A-Part

If you own a vehicle that has a salvage title, an automobile that is totaled, a legal lemon vehicle, or a junk automobile that hasn’t worked for a long period of time, Wrench-A-Part may be interested in buying the vehicle in order for our customers to remove parts from it. When the useful parts have been removed, we sell the scrap metal to recyclers, so they can reprocess it.

If you own one of the four types of vehicles above, don’t assume that we wouldn’t be interested in buying it (we also accept donated vehicles). We consistently pay some of the best prices in the industry for junk vehicles, and we would love to hear about the automobile you would like to sell. To receive a free price quote, contact our location in Austin, Belton, or Lubbock today.

Auto recycling has several important benefits, and there are some compelling statistics that prove it. Thanks to information that the green movement has disseminated, most drivers are aware that recycling an end-of-life automobile is a better option than dumping it in a landfill.

However, many drivers are unaware of just how far reaching the benefits of the auto recycling process can be. Below are six revealing statistics that help to quantify the positive results of the auto recycling process, and make an exceptionally strong case for its continuance and growth.

• The steel industry recycles over 14 million tons of steel from end-of-life vehicles annually — a weight that is roughly equivalent to the amount of steel contained in 13,000 vehicles.

• Each year, when the amount of steel that is recycled from old vehicles is compared to the amount that is used for new ones, the recycling rate for automobiles is almost 100%.

• Roughly 65% of the weight of a typical passenger car is comprised of steel and iron. 25% of the steel that is used for new car bodies comes from the auto recycling process.

• Recycling steel from end-of-life vehicles allows the steel industry to save enough energy annually to supply energy to roughly 18 million residences for an entire year.

• Recycling only one ton of steel preserves almost 2,500 pounds of processed iron ore, nearly 1,400 pounds of coal, and about 120 pounds of high-quality limestone deposits.

• Recycling metal requires about 74% of the energy that is needed to create new metal. By conserving energy, auto recycling helps to reduce emissions that harm the environment.

These statistics demonstrate the positive impact that auto recycling has on the automobile manufacturing process, and show some important effects that recycled car metal can have on the environment. If you own an end-of-life vehicle, support the environment by selling or donating it to a professional salvage lot (a.k.a. junkyard) that participates in the auto recycling process.

Contact Wrench-A-Part

Automobiles are the most recycled consumer product — a fact that is partially reflected by the statistics above. By selling or donating your end-of-life vehicle to a salvage lot that participates in auto recycling, such as Wrench-A-Part, you can help to protect the environment, and help companies that manufacture automobiles and auto parts to do the same.

For information about selling or donating your vehicle to Wrench-A-Part, contact one of our Texas locations in Austin, Belton, or Lubbock. We look forward to hearing from you!

Some products are completely recyclable, but an automobile is not one of them. According to a new study by the United Recyclers Group (URG), roughly 75% of the weight of a consumer grade automobile consists of materials that will be recycled — primarily steel and iron.

This means that about 25% of the automobile’s weight is comprised of materials that are likely to end up in a landfill. The reason why is obvious: Many vehicle recyclers specialize in recycling metals and not other types of recyclable materials, such as glass, plastic, and rubber.

How Junkyards Make a Difference

Before vehicles fall into the hands of an auto recycler, they are often sold or donated to salvage lots (a.k.a. junkyards). While most salvage lots don’t actually recycle vehicles, they do benefit the process of recycling a vehicle by selling auto parts that some recyclers would not recycle.

For example, a salvage lot often sells the following glass, plastic, and rubber components to consumers before they send the scrap metal from a vehicle to a recycler: hoses that connect parts, windows, light bulb housings, dashboard components, and fluid reservoirs, to name a few.

Selling these types of auto parts before sending a vehicle to a recycler helps to reduce the

amount of material from the automobile that would be sent to a landfill. In some cases, the only materials that are thrown away are upholstery, rubber seals, and small plastic components.

Interested in Recycling a Vehicle?

If so, selling or donating the automobile to Wrench-A-Part can result in less of the vehicle’s weight being disposed of in a landfill. Our customers buy a wide variety of auto components from our extensive inventory of vehicles, including ones that some recyclers would not recycle.

If you choose to sell us your car, we’ll offer you a competitive price that reflects the fair market value of the automobile. If the car is undriveable, we can travel to your location and tow it away for free. Our free towing services help you keep all the money you earn from the sale.

For more information about recycling a vehicle, or to receive a free quote for your automobile, contact one of our three locations in Austin, Belton, and Lubbock. Recycling a vehicle benefits the environment, and we help to ensure that the least amount of material ends up in landfills.

 

For decades, consumers and businesses have known that landfills don’t do the environment any favors. Even the best managed landfill areas can still contribute to water pollution, soil contamination, and air pollution — negative effects that are only hastened by the placement of automobiles in landfills. If you have a junk car that you need to get rid of, selling it to a salvage lot that participates in auto recycling can positively impact landfill use in four important ways.

Fewer Fires at Landfill Sites

Underground fires at landfill sites are not uncommon. Because the junk holds air underground and decomposing materials form methane gas that gradually builds up, a fire can have enough oxygen and methane to burn for weeks. Adding to the flames can be engine fluids such as oil and gasoline. By keeping vehicles out of landfills, fires may be reduced or even prevented.

More Room for Non-Recyclables

Landfills are ideally places that should be filled with non-recyclable materials and not recyclable components such as engine parts and car frames. Keeping recyclables out of landfills helps reduce the need to develop more landfill property. Considering that vehicles are some of the largest objects to be placed in landfills, auto recycling can significantly increase landfill space.

Lower Presence of Toxic Liquids

Deep in many landfills is a stew of toxic residue that is comprised of engine oil, grease, and gasoline, among other residues. As gravity does its job, these liquids can gradually find their way into water bodies, soil, and air, where they cause pollution that affects the environment. The removal of automobiles from landfills can help reduce the presence of toxic liquids.

Easier to Move Landfill Detritus

Professionally maintained landfills need to have their junk shifted to make room for more detritus, find something in the landfill that police are searching for, separate certain types of materials from others, etc. Keeping automobiles out of landfills only makes it easier to move detritus from one area to another, helping landfills to carry out crucial operations more efficiently.

Contact Wrench-A-Part

Wrench-A-Part is a professionally operated salvage yard that serves the Austin, Belton, and Lubbock areas. If you have a junk vehicle you need to get rid of, let us see if we need it in our inventory. If we do, we will pay you a fair price for the vehicle, and then send it to an auto recycling facility after the usable parts from the automobile are sold. When you sell your junk vehicle to us, you can feel confident that none of its recyclable materials will end up in a landfill.

The practice of vehicle recycling has been around for decades, but some people are unaware of its environmental benefits. If you have an old car that you want to sell, doing so needn’t get in the way of recycling the vehicle. All you need to do is sell it to a salvage lot that participates in the auto recycling process. The salvage lot and a vehicle recycler will handle the rest. Below are four important reasons to recycle your old vehicle to help the environment.

Reduces Landfill Use

Landfills that bury their keep may look neat and clean from the outside, but underground they contain a cornucopia of materials and substances that are harmful to the environment. To make matters worse, those materials and substances have a tendency to combust and start subterranean fires. In terms of pollution, sending a vehicle to a landfill is one of the worst options.

Reduces Soil Contamination

Landfills are soil contamination incarnate. Everything in a landfill that can circulate through the soil eventually does, including engine fluids that are toxic to natural ecosystems. Once soil becomes polluted, it becomes that much easier for water to become polluted — and water pollution can gradually make its way from one hemisphere to the next without much resistance.

Reduces Water Pollution

The soil at landfills is like most other kinds of soil: it absorbs rainfall, the water from which can pick up contaminants and carry them into streams, rivers, ponds, and oceans. In landfills that contain vehicles, contaminants include engine fluids and semi-fluids that accreted on metal parts while the vehicles were in use, such as gasoline, motor oil, grease, and other strong lubricants.

Reduces Air Pollution

Remember the underground fires at landfills that we mentioned above? Despite burning underground, it is a matter of physics that emissions from the fires will make their way through the earth’s crust. The longer the fire burns, the more the pressure of emissions builds up, until it finally forces toxic smoke up through the earth’s surface and into the jetstream.

Contact Wrench-A-Part

If you’re looking for a salvage lot in Texas that will let you recycle your old vehicle to help the environment, contact Wrench-A-Part. We are a professionally operated salvage lot with locations in Austin, Belton, and Lubbock. In addition to ensuring that your old vehicle makes it to a vehicle recycler, we will also pay you for the car and tow it away for free. To find out how much your car is worth, call one of our three locations today, or simply use our contact form.

Make the decision today to recycle your old car to help the environment!

If you are interested in recycling your vehicle, you have plenty of options, four of the most popular of which are: selling or donating the automobile to a salvage lot, donating it to a wrecking yard, offering it to a special donation program, and selling or donating it to a vehicle recycler. Which option is the best one for your needs? To find out, let’s take a closer look at each one.

Salvage Lot

Selling your vehicle to a salvage lot puts it on the path to being recycled and puts some extra cash in your pocket at the same time. Salvage vehicles usually fetch hundreds of dollars a piece from a salvage lot. Selling a vehicle that still drives may earn you even more. In addition to paying a fair price for vehicles, most salvage lots will tow them away free of charge.

Wrecking Yard

The terms wrecking yard and salvage lot are used interchangeably, but there are differences between the two types of businesses. Wrecking yards often contain vehicles that have no useful parts and are piled on top of each other, waiting to be recycled. Salvage lots that sell used parts have a clean lot where cars sit side by side and typically pay more for cars than wrecking yards.

Donation Program

Sometimes the most lucrative option for recycling your vehicle is getting rid of it through a special donation program, such as the Cash for Clunkers program that the George W. Bush Administration created. Such donation programs can provide cash, tax incentives, and other benefits. Before you recycle your automobile, do an internet search for donation programs.

Vehicle Recycler

You also have the option of selling your vehicle directly to an auto recycler. However, before you do so, the recycler may require you to remove non-recyclable auto parts, such as upholstery from the cabin and trunk, cabin lining, seats, etc. Selling to a vehicle recycler is similar to selling to a salvage lot, except the salvage lot won’t want you to remove any non-recyclable materials.

Contact Wrench-A-Part

If you are interested in recycling your vehicle, Wrench-A-Part may offer you hundreds of dollars — and perhaps even more — for the automobile. We consistently pay some of the best prices in the salvage lot industry for salvage cars and used vehicles that still drive. What’s more, after we sell the good parts from a vehicle, we liquidate the scrap metal to an auto recycler. For more information about our services, call one of our locations in Austin, Belton, or Lubbock today.