RECYCLING VEHICLES
Have you ever wondered what happens to a car as soon as it has exceeded its useful service life? This piece will shed more light on the "after life" of automobiles.
Vehicle recycling is the dismantling of vehicles to identify useful parts at the end of their service life. This has created a vehicle dismantling industry. The industry has various names for its business outlets including wrecking yard, auto dismantling yard, car spare parts supplier, and recently, auto or vehicle recycling. Vehicle recycling has always occurred to some degree but in recent years manufacturers have become involved in the process. A car crusher is often used to reduce the size of the scrapped vehicle for transportation to a steel mill.
A lot of times, the most useful parts of a vehicle are recycled as donors to other vehicles of the same kind who are still within their useful service life. This is the most popular way automobiles are being recycled in Nigeria.
The process of recycling a vehicle is extremely complicated as there are many parts to be recycled and many hazardous materials to remove.
Briefly, the process begins with incoming vehicles being inventoried for parts. The wheels, tires, battery and catalytic converter are removed. Fluids, such as engine coolant, oil, transmission fluid, air conditioning refrigerant, and gasoline, are drained and removed. Certain high value parts such as electronic modules, alternators, starter motors, infotainment systems — even complete engines or transmissions — may be removed if they are still serviceable and can be profitably sold on; either in “as-is” used condition or to a remanufacturer for restoration. This process of removing higher value parts from the lower value vehicle body shell has traditionally been done by hand. As the process is labour intensive, it is often uneconomical to remove many of the parts.
Recycling steel saves energy and natural resources. The steel industry saves enough energy to power about 18 million households for a year, on a yearly basis. Recycling metal requires 74 percent less energy than making metal. Thus, recyclers of end-of-life vehicles save an estimated 85 million barrels of oil annually that would have been used in the manufacturing of other parts.
Here are some facts about automobile recycling all over the world:
- Every year, more than 14 million tons of recycled steel is derived from junk vehicles. On average, a car has around 25% of its body made from recycled steel.
- Every year, around 27 million cars that reach the end of their useful life from around the world are recovered for recycling.
- Just about 80% of a vehicle (by weight) is recycled and the remaining 20% that can’t be recycled is termed “auto shredder residue (ASR),” which includes ferrous and nonferrous metal pieces, dirt, glass, fabric, paper, wood, rubber, and plastic.
- Approximately 98% to 99% of car batteries can be recycled.
- Recycling one ton of steel conserves 2500 pounds of iron ore, 1400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone.
- Car tire recycling is viable and material can be used to produce sandals and roadways.
- The lead-acid batteries used in cars are the most recycled product in the U.S. and have a 99.1% recycling rate
- The automotive recycling industry supplies around 37% of all ferrous metal to blast furnaces and smelters across the United States.
Ultimately, automotive recycling reduces accident rates by buying out of order vehicles from the road and keeping roads and highways clear of disabled and abandoned automobiles. Again, we at the SEM UNILAG materials sub-team are saying: reduce, reuse and most importantly recycle.
References:
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/auto-recycling-facts-and-figures-2877933
https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/white/2014/html/takumi/takumi06.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_recycling
Written by:
Oluwadare Favour (SEM UNILAG Materials Subteam)