It’s a crush job!

It was once a driver’s pride and joy, but once a car has reached the end of its days on the road, it doesn’t mean it has reached the end of its useful life.

An Oldham scrapyard takes cars and recycles them for parts, fluids, wheels, fuel and finally metal. Janice Barker found out how

Before vehicles like the K-reg Golf I watched going through the crusher become a crushed cube of steel, Broadbent Autos at Watersheddings strips them of valuable components which can be resold, reused or recycled.

The company was the first in the North-West to invest in a purpose-built recycling plant, and is still the only one of its kind in Oldham.

Every year over 600,000 litres of oil from illegally scrapped cars contaminate land and water in the North-West, according to the Environment Agency, which is calling on people to ensure they scrap their car responsibly, by checking the company they use has the necessary permit.

Every car on the road contains dangerous fluids and parts, which can cause pollution and damage wildlife.

The Agency licenses operators to clean up vehicles when they come to the end of their life, removing harmful substances and ensuring they are dealt with properly.

Broadbent Autos is one of around 1,500 authorised sites in England and Wales, and has been offering a licensed recycling service for six years with its £40,000 plant.

Manager Steve Wilkes said: “The Golf had had a bump on the front and the owner probably needed to spend about £250 on parts.

“He probably thought it was not worth it, and brought it here. We pay about £30 for a car, and put it through our de-pollution plant.”

Here operator Mike Holroyd takes out engine and transmission oils, brake fluids, coolants and the petrol, removes the wheels and tyres and takes off the exhaust to strip off the catalytic converter which contains precious metals.

The fluids are filtered and recycled, and tyres taken off the wheels. If the tyres are good enough they can be sold second hand, if not the rubber is shredded to make soft surfaces for children’s playgrounds, and the steel and aluminium wheels are recycled.

From Mike’s recycling bay the sad-looking Golf is moved to the crusher, but first its engine is ripped out by a fearsome steel-clawed crane.

Then the empty shell is lifted and unceremoniously dumped in the crusher, a bright yellow huge jaw which gobbles it up and spits it out seconds later as a cube of scrap.

Steve explained that the engines and the cubes are piled up to be taken to smelters in Manchester, where white hot temperatures mean the impurities rise to the top, and are raked off, while the molten metal flows out to be used again. Anyone dismantling or storing scrap vehicles containing hazardous substances or components without licences could face a maximum penalty of up to £20,000 and/or six months imprisonment. It is estimated that 81,881 cars are handled by illegal operators in the North-West each year.

Gordon Whitaker, from the Environment Agency, said: “We don’t know exactly how much environmental damage is being caused by illegal operators, due to the very fact that they are illegal.

“We need to educate the public that there is a right and a wrong way to scrap your car. It is hoped that this will reduce the supply of vehicles to illegal operators, and stop any damage before it occurs.”

A list of authorised operators is on the Agency’s website (www.environment-agency.gov.uk/publicregister).

Licensed operators issue a Certificate of Destruction which makes sure that the vehicle doesn’t turn up somewhere else causing pollution.