Auto recycling
The process of dismantling end-of-life vehicles, reselling usable parts and recycling the metal and materials.
Full guide: How car recycling works: what happens to a junk car
Auto recycling is the full process that turns an end-of-life vehicle back into resources: depollution, removing parts for resale, crushing, shredding, and separating steel, non-ferrous metals and residue for new uses.
For a car owner, recycling is what really happens to a junk car sold to a licensed yard. Selling to a licensed recycler also means the vehicle is reported correctly and taken off the road for good.
The U.S. Geological Survey says recycling of automobiles is nearly 100% each year, and that more than 13 million tons of steel a year is recycled from automobiles in North America, the equivalent of about 17 million cars, through more than 280 car shredders.1
References
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U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, “Iron and steel scrap” (February 2026), https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-iron-steel-scrap.pdf ↩