Recycling Your Junk Car Might Not Be Green

Or The Greenest Way Pays You The Most !

One of my duties at my day job is to supervise the purchasing of junk cars that we send away to metals recyclers who reprocess the old metals into new metals. And while it feels good to be working in a green industry, some of what I see is very disturbing and hardly green.

For starters, most of those guys who go around buying your old cars are doing horrible damage to the environment and many are simply dangerous to themselves and everyone else. Most of those guys DON'T safely dispose of waste oil, transmission fluid, antifreeze and Freon. Most of those guys pollute the air, soil and water with the many dangerous chemicals that are found in modern automobiles with no regards as to the damage their doing to our wildlife, drinking water and the air we breath.

It's against the law to remove insulation from wire by burning the wire but they do it anyway.

It's against the law to dump oil, antifreeze, gasoline and other automotive fluids on the ground, in streams, storm drains or into sewer systems but they do it anyway.

It's illegal to vent Freon into the air we breath but they do it anyway.

It's illegal to dump old tires and trash found in cars but they dump it so they won't have to pay for disposal.

And most of them don't care that I know what they're doing because they know I can't do anything about it.

But you can do something about it by not selling your junk car to disreputable car junkers and by selling your junk car directly to licensed salvage recycler.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, one such licensed salvage dealer is Salvage America. Selling your car directly to a licensed salvage recycler instead of your run of the mill junk man will not only help the environment but will also put more money in your pockets. After all, who do you think the junk man eventually sells your car to?