There are plenty of persuasive arguments in favour of scrapping your car. You’ll get a good price through a hassle-free deal, and you’ll know your vehicle is being recycled in the most eco-friendly manner currently available.

Unfortunately, those arguments often fall on deaf ears. Fortunately, there are plenty of encouraging statistics that should make you think more seriously about scrapping your car.

Millions of Tons of Material are Recycled Each Year

Plenty of people assume that cars sent to be scrapped just sit around a yard or get crushed into a cube and discarded, but this is not true at all. In fact, experts predict that over 25 million tons of materials are recycled from old vehicles each year. For example, over 14 million tons of recycled steel comes from scrapped vehicles, and new car bodies are made from an average of 25% recycled steel. Every year, it is predicted that the United States and Canada alone provide enough steel to produce 13 million new vehicles.

These figures are likely to become even more promising with the emergence of aluminium body construction. Why? Because an estimated 90% of the aluminium in a vehicle can be recovered and recycled.

Cars Are the Most Recycled Consumer Product

Cars might not be the first thing that spring to mind when you think about recycled products, but they’re actually the most recycled consumer product in the world. Here in Europe, close to eight million vehicles are recycled every year. In the United States, close to 12 million cars are recycled. When you scrap your car, you’re part of a huge global process.

Scrapping Prevents Hazardous Fluids and Oils Affecting the Environment

Remember the Exxon Valdez oil spill? The one that spilled approximately 10.8 million US gallons into the ocean? It’s easy to appreciate the impact of such disasters since all the waste is concentrated in one area. Well, each year the amount of hazardous fluids and oils reclaimed through automotive recycling is equal to eight Exxon Valdez disasters.