[fiat_tarun]

Great insight into how a scrap yard works and the icing on the cake was to see how the Japanese do it. Brilliant.

Did you also find out how it works out for the owner of the car when they surrender their vehicle ? Are they compensated directly or in the form of credits on a new car ?

[MacBa]

Its impressive to say the least. The way the whole process is done with minute attention to details (removing fluids properly, labeling the parts correctly, packaging them well, putting them in the right storage area) is simply amazing! I have never seen such an organized recycling facility before. Plus, look at the plethora of parts available for resale!

Thanks for the interesting read.

I did do some homework on this with a friend sometime back. If you happen to go by the official route, lots of environmental clearances are needed plus the facility is not allowed to be set up near the city limits. Given the HUGE CAPEX involved in setting up such a facility, we decided to go against it. As rightly pointed out by the fellow bhpians above, it makes sense for a car manufacturer to take up the lead on such a project.

[Jeroen]

Thanks for sharing. Yes, we have come a long way from a scrap yard to a recycling facility. You will find many European countries have similar facilities as well. The old scrap yard is disappearing. From an environmental point of view excellent of course. For the enthusiastic DIY car mechanic maybe less..

In the old days I used to be able to roam freely around scrap yards, looking for parts. You would bring your own tools and just take off what you needed. An additional benefit, if you did not quite understand how the part came apart you could practice a bit at zero cost.

I was very pleased, and surprised to find proper scrap yard in Kansas City when we lived there. Part of a huge chain:

http://www.picknpull.com/what_we_sell.aspx

You could just rock up in your truck, pay one dollar entry/insurance and you could roam around the yard, taking bits of yourself!

The inventory systems of these recycling operations are very good. Although not perfect you will be able to ask for very specific parts for a particular model/type/year car. Some of the places selling these second hand parts have well trained and knowledgable staff, so you get good advise and the right part.

Jeroen

[sandx]

It was an interesting read and I saw an ALTO as well . There are hundreds of cars lying out on the streets, dumpyards etc. in an appalling state. A facility like this in our country would at least provide a decent way to oblivion for a car that was once glistening when being handed over to a buyer. Some of the police stations are also becoming a dumping ground of vehicles involved in accidents and what not which are hardly cleared or moved for years.

[dinu2506]

Amazing information. Wish the recycled parts are available for consumption in India. I'm sure many of them will be in good nick.

[rht]

Astonished to see the neatly maintained arrangement.
Scavenging for parts here would be as easy as "looking for needle in a hay stack with an electromagnet :P "
Comparing it with the one we have in Mumbai - Kurla west (Kapadia) area.
Have seen 4-5 people hammering the parts out of the cars.

[BLACKBLADE]

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

Notice how EACH item is labelled. It's a proper warehouse with a sorted inventory management system in place:

Rows and rows of containers for small parts. Nothing goes wasted here:

Thanks a ton to Team-BHP mod khan_sultan for the insight provided. That is really some Japanese way of running a scrap yard ! We Indians have quite a lot of catching up to do.

Originally Posted by sandx

There are hundreds of cars lying out on the streets, dumpyards etc. in an appalling state. A facility like this in our country would at least provide a decent way to oblivion for a car that was once glistening when being handed over to a buyer.

Surprisingly, till date there is no legislation governing End of Life Vehicles (ELV) management or a vehicle recycling policy in India. With the Indian government's initiatives to go for stringent emission norms, the useful age of vehicles will be reduced, which calls for advancements in ELV management.

In the guidelines for "Environmentally Sound Management of ELVs" published by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) along with GIZ (Indo-German Environmenal Program), the count of ELVs in 2025 [PDF Document attached for reference] is projected to be a whopping two crores.

There is a huge untapped business potential for entrepreneurs !

Here is an interesting article from www.steel-360.com: Vehicle Recycling in India-A multi-billion dollar opportunity

Here is what you get, when you scrap a typical passenger car.



Source: www.steel-360.com:

India has taken its first baby step by signing an MoU between MSTC Limited, a Mini Ratna Category-I PSU under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel, Government of India and Mahindra Intertrade Limited (MIL) to set up the first auto shredding plant in India. The plant will be the first in the series of such auto shredding units to be built in the country. The plant is proposed to be located near Kandla in Gujarat.

[coolguru4ever]

Nice post. It's amazing to see how every small bit is recycled and stacked properly for further use. Here we can only wish for something like this.

Are the parts checked before being sent to a customer? Do they use all spare parts from a car or just the usable ones?

[mishraak]

Originally Posted by rht

Astonished to see the neatly maintained arrangement.
Scavenging for parts here would be as easy as "looking for needle in a hay stack with an electromagnet :P "
Comparing it with the one we have in Mumbai - Kurla west (Kapadia) area.
Have seen 4-5 people hammering the parts out of the cars.

There is one same kind of market in Delhi as well, Mayapuri. Here you can get parts for all kinds of vehicles. The parts generally come from insurance salvages and stolen vehicles.

[Storm2.0]

Does Japan has any policy for scrapping a car after it attains a certain age or number of kilometers. I remember in Dubai i think all cars have to be scrapped after it attains 5 years if age and immaculately maintained cars are exported to Sri Lanka and the car is sold in Sri Lanka at reasonable rates.

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

..For selling spare parts, they need a sales office, space for inventory, management overheads, order pipeline etc.[*] Used parts selling benchmark is 50% of the price of a new part. Quality is not a factor in this and it is implicit.[/list]

Looking at the envious parts availability from this process, one wishes similar setups become mainstream in India. That would significantly hamper the spurious spare parts industry; selection of used original spares over shiny spurious spares would be an automatic choice for consumers.

[bullock-Car]

Very interesting information and beautifully captured.
An inevitable requirement made systematic, serving dual purpose of recycling and cannibalizing to serve old vehicles.

[W.A.G.7]

Very interesting! The whole car which had no use in the beginning, is now converted to hundreds of parts which can serve their remaining life in the body of another car! I liked the way, they preserved all the useful parts of the car and sorted & labelled them correctly. That way, they have created a huge inventory of useful parts; especially for cars whose production may have been stopped. Do they make their majority of the profit by selling the labelled parts directly to consumers or to some third party seller?

[motorguy]

This is so interesting!. Never knew that there was so much beyond just scrapping a car and stripping it. What impressed me the most is how organized and systematic they are in managing the used parts business. The parts that can be re-used from scrap are overwhelming.

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Thanks for sharing. Yes, we have come a long way from a scrap yard to a recycling facility. You will find many European countries have similar facilities as well. The old scrap yard is disappearing. From an environmental point of view excellent of course.

The Late Brake Show did an episode on Charles Trent/eBay Parts Car recycling operation in the UK. It was truly fascinating to see how advanced and clean the facility is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnh1PRBQOPc

The below content is copied from the video description,

Ever seen a car recycling depot so futuristic? Cars stripped, boxed and on eBay within hours! In this episode a very enthusiastic Jonny Smith was invited by eBay parts to visit what could be Europe's most advanced vehicle recycling depot. Charles Trent in Dorset together with eBay are at the forefront of car dismantling, using data and the latest tech to champion Certified Recycled Parts (CPR) that are carefully inspected, used OEM components. Why? Because by buying a fitting pre-owned OEM parts, there's far less energy and CO2 in manufacture compared to new parts, they WILL fit and the cost is far lower.

For more info go here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Certified-Re...

• In this salvage yard tour episode Jonny also follows the full strip down of a Tesla Model S dual motor and a new 2019 Mini Cooper.
• The 'disassembly lines' showcase this brand new factory style method of dismantling cars for salvage and parts re-use.
• Within a few hours the parts will have come off the car, been catalogued, photographed, packaged, shelved and uploaded to eBay for purchase.
• Many of them can be delivered next day.
• It's an impressive system, and one that champions a circular economy (and doesn't rely on supply chains of new OEM or pattern parts).

P.S:

• My wife couldn't believe how cars that LOOK perfectly fine from the outside are scrapped. I had to explain that structural integrity is skin deep so yeah cars get scrapped more so easily here.
• I would have expected the workers to wear hard hats near the crushing machines.
• Once in a while I read how randomly the Indian NGT drops a bombshell banning cars based on unscientific criteria. Do they have a roadmap for car recycling facilities?