Car dismantling at a cross road in 2007:
- new responsibilities, new requirements and new players
By: Lennart Scharff, EGARA-secretary
- Introduction
No doubt about it: Car dismantling has probably existed as long as the car has existed, and until only a few years ago, the trade as such was relatively uncomplicated.
The owner of an old car, would simply discard his vehicle at the nearest junk-yard, perhaps get a few euro for it, and the junk-yard owner would then try to sell what evetr he could from the vehicle as second hand spare parts – and the rest would be sold as scrap-metal. Further, some one looking for a second hand spare part would normally just come by the yard, see what was available and even in some cases dismantle the part him-self
These days are by long gone, and there are several reasons for that:
- Car dismantling has become a professional business sector
- They are nee legal and environmental requirements
- There are new players in the market.
- A professional business sector
Forget about the scrap-yard! Modern car dismantling – or as we prefer to call it now: Automotive Recycling is a highly organised and professional and professional business sector, with intelligent stock-control and selling systems – of course fully computerised. Customer do not any longer come by and “look what’s available” – they phone, fax, e-mail and/or even use some of the search machines developed in order to look for the part they need. And even better: Some systems are even linked, meaning that the search-machine can does not only search one site – but many and some times even in more countries in order to give the customer what he needs: The parts he needs in order to repair a car – not even his car, perhaps – because more and more automotive recyclers finds that work-shops and garages are their primary customer group. This means that we serve the professional market with good quality used parts and components, all properly controlled and tested, ensuring that the parts do not impose safety or environmental hazards – and thing which we refer to as “Green Parts”.
Because that is the second characteristic of modern Automotive Recycling: It is environment friendly! This is part-wise due to the new legislative requirements – see below – but even before these came into force, we had ourselves reaslise that we have our role to play in order to protect the environment. Therefore, old cars – now referred to as ELVs – End-of-Life Vehicles, are dismantled in a safe manner in order to avoid leakage or spills of dangerous liquids and then, as said above, parts are controlled and tested.
“Green Parts” as named by EGARA, are those parts that have been safely removed, tested asnd stored, to ensure optimum quality to the buyer and the highest standard of protection to the environment. As a consequence: Modern Automotive Recyclers are ISO-9001 and/or ISO-14001 certified in order to ensure that they, always, live up to this.
Recent Comments