Car recycling crisis faces Europe
Wednesday, April 11, 2018 - 10:35:47
On average there are around 10 million vehicles across the UK and the rest of Europe which come to the end of the road, both literally and figuratively, so need to be scrapped. But stats show that up to four million cars from this total effectively go missing, according to Politico.
Experts warn that this suggests a huge number of vehicles are scrapped illegally, or simply abandoned and left to fall into disrepair. And the scale of the environmental threat that this poses is huge.
Estimates indicate that anywhere up to 55 million litres of potentially damaging substances, including engine oil and coolant, are not properly processed because of the volumes of old cars that disappear from the official records once they are no longer taxed or registered.
In addition to this, there are huge mountains of metals and plastics in unwanted vehicles which could be recycled, as well as acres of glass from windscreens which are not accounted for in the modern age.
If managed correctly by an approved dismantling firm, around 85 per cent of a car can be recovered and converted back into usable materials. And as attempts to build a circular economy mount, this black hole in the vehicle recycling market is an issue which cannot afford to be ignored.
European Commission representatives fear that illegal car dismantling is so popular because operators are able to undercut official providers because they cut a lot of corners. Polluting liquids are discarded without a care, rather than being dealt with appropriately, which causes untold harm across the continent.
Although mobile phone recycling is not regulated in the same way, the huge numbers of old handsets which are simply thrown away each year is similarly problematic. Selling mobile phones is the best way to avoid harming the environment, just as scrapping a car with a registered dismantler is essential.
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