CLAPPED-OUT CARS
And their 30,000 parts
A vehicle may be a clapped-out writeoff, but it still contains parts, components and fluids that can be re-used or recycled.
Tim Clarges, at Abco auto dismantlers on Napier Rd, Palmerston North, says car bodies are examples of scrap that is notoriously awkward to get rid of.
Aside from the recyclable steel carcass, the plastics, glass, upholstery, wiring and electronics, oil, fuel, transmission and brake fluid, as well as tyres, are environmentally toxic and polluting.
But at the end of a vehicle’s life, Clarges said everything needed to go somewhere, and preferably not into landfill.
Abco is one of several local destinations for no-longer-wanted vehicles.
‘‘We cut them up and sell the components for use in other cars,’’ Clarges said.
His company obtains stock through auctions, the insurance process or from motorists looking to dispose of their vehicles.
‘‘Any parts we don’t keep go back into the body shell, and Molten Metals come and collect them for crushing and baling,’’ Clarges said.
Gordon Lowe, branch manager of Molten Metals on Kelvin Grove Rd, said the scrap metal recycling company made use of batteries, engines and gearboxes, and also recycled whiteware and e-waste.
Collected vehicles had the wheels taken off and were drained of fluid before being squashed into 1-metre cubes and sent north for shredding. The shredding process separated the compressed glass, plastics and metals, with most of the steel and rare earth metals sent overseas for further processing and extraction.