Most people wave their old car off on the back of a recovery truck and never think about it again. But what actually happens next? A scrapped car goes through a carefully controlled process at an Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF), and very little of it ends up in the ground. Here is the journey, one stage at a time.

Step 1: Arrival and paperwork

When the truck pulls into the yard, the car is booked in before anything else happens. The ATF records the registration, the VIN and the seller's details. Under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, the yard has to see and keep a copy of your photo ID, which is why you are asked for it on collection day.

The ATF then issues a Certificate of Destruction (CoD) and tells the DVLA the vehicle has been destroyed. You should still notify the DVLA yourself as soon as the car leaves you. Our guide on how to scrap my car  explains exactly what to do.

Step 2: Depollution

This is the most important stage, and the law is strict about it. Depollution has to happen on an impermeable surface with sealed drainage, so nothing can soak into the soil or run into drains. A trained operator removes everything that could cause harm.

Fluids

The car is usually lifted on a special rig so fluids can be drained from underneath. That includes:

- Petrol or diesel left in the tank

- Engine oil and the oil filter

- Gearbox and differential oil

- Coolant and antifreeze

- Brake fluid

- Power steering fluid

- Screenwash

Much of this is reused. Fuel is often used on site to run yard vehicles, and waste oil is sent for reprocessing.

Gases, batteries and explosives

Air conditioning refrigerant is recovered by a certified technician using sealed equipment, because releasing it into the air is illegal. The battery comes out and goes for lead and acid recycling. Airbags and seatbelt pretensioners contain small explosive charges, so they are either removed or safely set off inside the car before any further work.

Other hazardous parts

Tyres are taken off and sent for recycling or reuse. The catalytic converter is removed for its precious metals. Older cars may also contain parts with mercury, which must be taken out.

Step 3: Dismantling

Once the car is safe, the dismantlers look at what is worth saving. A surprising amount of a scrapped car can live on in other vehicles. Common parts pulled for resale include:

- Engines and gearboxes

- Doors, bonnets and boot lids

- Headlights and tail lights

- Alternators, starter motors and ECUs

- Wheels and seats

These are cleaned, tested and sold as used spares, which keeps repair costs down for other drivers and saves the energy needed to make new parts. Large plastic items such as bumpers and glass may also be removed at this stage for separate recycling.

Step 4: Crushing

What remains is a stripped shell. To make it easier to transport, the shell is flattened by a crusher or compressed into a bale. A stack of flattened cars takes up a fraction of the space, so a single lorry can carry many of them to the shredder.

Step 5: Shredding

The shredder is where the car finally disappears. It is a huge hammer mill that tears a car shell into fist-sized chunks in less than a minute. The noise is something else.

Step 6: Separating the materials

The mixed fragments then pass through a series of machines:

- Magnets pull out steel and iron, which makes up most of a car's weight

- Eddy current separators push out non-ferrous metals like aluminium and copper

- Air and water systems split off light materials such as foam, fabric and plastic

The steel goes to steelworks and foundries to be melted down and turned into new products. It may come back as reinforcing bar, cans, or even part of a new car.

The leftover mix of plastics, rubber and fibres is called shredder residue. Rather than going to landfill, much of it is now sorted further or used to produce energy.

How much of your car is recycled?

UK rules under the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations set a target of 95% of each vehicle being reused, recycled or recovered, with at least 85% reused or recycled. The ATFs in our network work to these standards, and you can read more about them on our recycling centres page 

Why it matters which yard you use

An unlicensed operator may skip depollution entirely, draining oil onto the ground or dumping the shell. That is bad for the environment, and it can also leave you legally tied to the car. Using a licensed car scrapping service means your vehicle follows every step above, you get a proper Certificate of Destruction, and you are paid by bank transfer.

If your car has reached the end of the road, you can get an instant quote and book free scrap car collection in a couple of minutes.