Most exposés on auto recycling focus on what percentage or specific parts of end-of-life vehicles can be recycled. Percentage wise, the number is about 85 percent, and the number of individual components that can be recycled are too numerous to list here. But there's also a dark side to auto recycling: the roughly 15 percent of an automobile that isn't recyclable and often ends up in a landfill, where it takes up space and is buried under layers of other non-recyclables.
Parts That Aren't Recycled
If you tell a car fanatic that the rubber from automobiles can't be recycled, he or she might immediately think of tires and disagree with you. It's true: vehicle tires can be recycled and are reprocessed in great volume in cities throughout the U.S. But cars contain grades of rubber other than the kind used for the tires that make them drivable.
Rubber is found on the vehicle body in the form of door seals, in the engine compartment as gaskets and tubes, in the console area of the cabin, and the list goes on. The problem is that not all car rubber in made from the same constituents, and, therefore, can't all be reprocessed in the same way. Some rubber isn't recyclable, not because it can't be recycled in theory, but because the process for doing so isn't available. The same is true of certain grades of plastic found in vehicles.
Car glass is another commonly non-recyclable vehicle material. Glass, of course, can be recycled. But remember that heating feature in the back window of your car that you turn on in the winter to melt the ice? Removing the metal heating elements just to recycle the window is essentially cost prohibitive. The same could be said of removing the glass to recycle the metal. One of the pleasant features of the modern rear car window basically makes the glass unrecyclable.
Another common blight in the process of recycling a vehicle is figuring out what to do with upholstery. Leather and vinyl can be recycled, but synthetic fibers that compose much vehicle upholstery these days have a single lifespan. They're exceptionally hard to reweave, much less turn into anything functional. If you see a car seat in a landfill, the upholstery may be the reason why.
Better News on the Horizon
According to Latisha Petteway, Spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recycling the non-recyclables mentioned above is largely due to "weak markets for major recoverable materials - such as polyurethane foam, rubber, and glass - and the processing needed to meet market specifications."
However, recycling a vehicle may not involve tossing away those non-recyclables for much longer. According to Road / Show by CNET, "Scientists at Illinois' Argonne National Laboratory say they're close to completing a facility that recycles the leftovers from junked vehicles."
In the near future, we may be able to say that 100 percent of consumer vehicles are recyclable, and add a new meaning to "recycling a vehicle."
About Wrench-A-Part
Wrench-A-Part is a professionally operated Texas junkyard that contributes to auto recycling by selling reliable, used car parts to keep them in circulation and forwarding leftover materials to recyclers. If you're thinking about sending a junk car to a landfill, contact us first. If we can use your car, we'll make you a competitive cash offer and tow it for free. To contact our location nearest you, please see our contact page. We can help you recycle your junker!
Source : articlesbase.com
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