I am fascinated to read on the web about recycling of cars, and a little dismayed that the poor motorists have been stung yet again when cars come to the end of their lives for whatever reason.
A friend of mine who owns a scrapyard in my area is still taking in cars Free of Charge, and will even pay you £5.00 per tonne if the car is stripped of its tyres. When he has to stick to the new regs these happy days will be gone for ever. We will then reach an apocolypse of abandoned cars gradually sucumbing to the spares vultures and litter louts.
I cannot help but think that as 75% of most cars can be recycled, with effective investment and automation the self financing potential is there. Figures I have heard quoted is £40 cost of recycling these cars with only £8 revenue on average.
However, when you look at the comparative prices of copper and aluminium compared to that of steel, and then think of all those wiring looms, replacement brake pipes, cylinder heads and other fittings that simply seem to get lost in the process, one does wonder. Don't forget those items that can be reconditioend. The going rate for a popular engine of gearbox fit for reconditioning is around £10 to £20. That's how much I received for my scrapped Talbot Horizon engine 10 years ago. ECUs etc are another story. My faulty ABS ECU for my Xantia was worth £60 to a reconditioner. He complained that he couldn't get enough of them to satisfy demand!
Oh, and did I mention those items that people would want to buy from breakers - body panels, servicable components etc?
In addition, the four letter word that most people associate with ELVs is TYRE! Well, I read on the web that a british company involved in the disposal of tyres has a contract with a cement company to supply scrap tyres for their cement works. As well as tyres having an ability to provide 20% more calorific ooutput by weight than coal on incineration, the site claims that the oxides from the steel bands are beneficial to the cement manufacturing process. A host of other uses for recyled tyre material is identified.
Even before motor manufactuers were encouraged to make cars more recyclable, many materials were able to be effectively sorted with little effort, why because it was (and still is) worth the breaker's while to do that.
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Problem solved. Export them to the Philippines or Somalia or somewhere. They'll keep 'em going for ever, they'll be out of sight out of mind from the Eurotopians and their rule books and everybody wins. How much better to let these guys earn a living via their rehab skills than dish out your tax money to useless aid agencies who pocket most of it in publicity and fat-cat salary expenses and grease money. Buses we like especially.
Here we don't even throw away the McD's styrofoam: it al gets used. Europe hasn't a clue about real recycling, done at the bottom and for peanuts.
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Problem solved. Export them to the Philippines or Somalia or somewhere.
Funny you should mention that G.
I have often thought that developing countries with the potential and need for cheap transport to increase economic growth could provide a real alternative. Cars offered for this would not necessarily need to pass the full MOT here in the UK, but safety critical features such as brakes, exhaust, tyres etc should be in good condition. I guess at a push, popular cars that don't meet the predetermined criteria could be accepted for spares only.
Lets see, costs involved would be:-
Receipt
Receipt testing (to make sure everything basic works on receipt)
Shipping
Local import taxes (if applicable)
Local distribution.
What are popular makes and models in the Philippines?
If car manufacturers gave a contribution towards costs to keep their vehicles running in another country, eventually this would open up spares markets. If I were the MD of Rover, I would be dead keen to get older Metros, Maestros and Montegos exported via the ship load and meanwhile, set up a spares supply network for these vehicles, which would be breaking into a brand new emerging market.
Does anyone out there know what I could get say 500 cars to the Philippines for, or what would be the unit cost for shipping.
If it's say £25 per car, you could probably get that and more from the chap who wants to dispose of it. Any local costs could be recouped from local buyers possibly.
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I think the problem is that we don't initially pay the full cost of any of our consumer goods. This should include the cost of propper disposal/recycling and be paid up front when the item is new. It's unfair to expect the last owner of a car or television etc. to pay for it's disposal which in many cases will be more than they paid for it. An alternative would be to put a deposit on each car sold of say £1000 which would be returned to the last owner when the car is scrapped. Unpopular but effective.
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Did anyone hear what happened about the recovery/recycling/breaking up/whatever, of all the lovely gear that went down in the Channel recently?
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I have often wondered why scrap tyres are not shredded/crumbed and used in tarmac for road resurfacing.
It's such an obvious use, there must be some good reason why we still have these tyre mountains?
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Its perfectly feasible using a technique called pyrolysis to take in used tyres, and get out of the process, oil and gas which can be burnt as a fuel, steel which can be recycled into the steel industry and carbon black which is of course usable as filtereng material, or even into new tyres. Emissions from such a plant are minor, measurable and controllable.
The problem which has to be overcome is that for filtration purposes the carbon black is not the top grade, based on surface area/volume ratio, and is not food grade either, but I think that with a bit more work both those could be overcome.
So why are not more of these in use, because of NIMBYNOTE s.
(1)
You see they have to go under the planning rules as waste incinerators and as soon as you mention that out come Greenpeace and all the other of their ilk to stop it. When you ask them, well what alternative do you suggest, a deafening silence results. Then they just shout NO but louder this time.
Tossers! (Please pardon my French)
(1) NIMBYNOTE = Not In My Back Yard, Not Over There Either.
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"..a deposit on each car sold of say £1000"
And it could be called VAT!
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