In some countries, a junk yard is a wrecking or scrap yard. It is the starting point for an old, mangled and/or useless vehicle’s journey to the big car lot in the sky. Cincinnati has several of them. People often complain about the noise they make and, very vividly describe the untidy and chaotic mess with which they blight a neighborhood. However, a good junkyard is more than where old cars go to die. It represents a trend toward reducing the disposable nature of the automobile industry.
Auto Salvage
Junk yards salvage parts and materials from any vehicle. They remove these with the intent of refurbishing/repairing them for resale. This is recycling. In fact, for centuries, wrecking yards have long accepted various items for this very purpose. However, more recently auto salvage has undergone this environmentally responsible makeover with the rescuing of parts more extensive than ever before.
Today, a junk yard can salvage many parts prior to the annihilation of a vehicle. These include the:
- Battery
- Engine and its parts
- Console
- Floor mats
- Gas tank
- Seats
- Tires – sold as tires (after retreading) or to companies for fuel or ground as up for other uses including paving roads
- Window controls
In Cincinnati, everything is under consideration.
A Good Junk Yard Recycles
If you live in Cincinnati, you can easily locate a wrecker’s. You may even have taken an old “junker” there for destruction, getting a few dollars in return. Such actions may be beneficial to you, but a good junk yard is more than this. It works to salvage as much material and parts as possible. It then repairs or refurbishes them for resale. In doing so, it lowers the energy use required for the production of new vehicle components, provides affordable parts for drivers and reduces the overall impact the self-destructive and even wasteful automobile industry would have on the environment if such recycling measures did not occur.
