We can help you claim
compensation following an accident
illness or injury - nationwide
Call: 0800 10 757 95
Like everything else your car has a limited life span. This is often determined by the wear and tear accumulated over the years and the distance the car travels and can be cut short prematurely if you are involved in a car accident. In addition to this are factors such as the amount of care you lavish on your vehicle and the make and model. Some cars seem to go on forever until the mechanic has to charge more for a service or repair job than the car is actually worth. When this day arrives it is time to send the car to the scrap yard in order to be dismantled and recycled. If a car has been written off in an accident or is no longer repairable then on the basis of safety it must not be driven any more.
In the UK we dispose of 2 millions cars every year. At the moment most of the metal in a scrapped car is re used but a large amount still goes into landfill. This causes pollution and long term environmental problems. The amount of metal that is disposed of equates to 2 million tonnes. It is extremely important that the amount of recycling that is carried out increases in line with the increase in car ownership.
Recycling a vehicle after its useful life, which is an average of 13.5 years, is quite complicated and can be costly. The cost of recycling a car is usually the responsibility of the last owner. Many people find that they cannot afford to scrap a car or have it recycled and as a result many vehicles are dumped. Beyond 2007 however car manufacturers will be responsible for the cost of recycling cars that they produced. This means that the amount of cars that are dumped should reduce.
A new EU directive called the End of Life Vehicle Directive (ELV) has set targets as to how much of a car should be recycled. By 2006 85% of a vehicle must be recycled and by 2015 that figure will have to rise to 95%.
How are cars recycled?
Before a car can be recycled it will need to be dismantled. This involves depolluting the vehicle by removing all oils, fluids, batteries and tyres (tyres can also be recycled and are made up of rubber, metal and textiles - mainly a cotton composition). These individual items can all be recycled separately and safely. After it has been dismantled much of the vehicle will then be shredded. The result of the shredding process is about 70% shredded steel which is reused by the steel industry. The rest is classified as shredder fluff and is made up of plastics, foam and other material that has not been removed when the vehicle was being dismantled. It is possible to remove items such as plastic or glass before shredding but it is labour intensive and therefore costly.
Recycling vehicles makes good sense and helps to preserve some of our energy resources for the future. Recycling material saves 74% of the energy needed to make metal from raw materials.
Personal injury
If you have been unfortunate enough to be involved in a car accident and have been injured as a result then we may be able to help you. If it can be shown that someone else was to blame for your accident then we can help you to make a personal injury claim. You will be able to get free legal advice and to claim compensation for your suffering and losses.
For more information or free legal advice about your car accident claim give us a call on 0800 10 757 95 or fill in our online claim form and we will call you back.
