How much of a car can be recycled, if it’s taken apart or broken down to components. How could this be done?
Almost all of it can be recycled. Just take it to a junk yard and they will let their customers pull off the parts they need. Eventually it will have its fluids drained and will be crushed into a relatively small cube of crushed metal, which will be melted down and used to make other metal objects.
Good info; cars have been recycled long before recycling of paper and other things started.
Depending on the wage rates and standard of living, cars either get dismantled (saleable items removed) such as happens in North America and Europe, and the rest crushed and chopped up as shown in the above clip.
In India, cars live forever and are constantly rebuilt. Labor is very cheap, and cars, up to now have been very expensive.
There is a car crusher/chopper in my city and the chopped car pieces go through magnetic separation and an air classifier that blows out the fluff, the uphostery and plastic trim pieces, sending the metal to be processed by a steel mill.
The fluff is difficult to dispose of, and some plastic can be seperated and recycled into flower pots and garden trim rails. The remainded is burned offf and the chimney scrubbed to keep the ash out of the atmosphere.
In Germany, recycling is most complete. Every part of a German car has to be marked as to what it is, and be detachable to be recycled. The German “Blue Dot” program requires all containers and other items sold to have maximum “recyclability”. So, a Volkswagen in Germany will be nearly completely recycled; more so than in North America.
Wrecking yards are now called “automotive recycling centers”!
Actually, EPA compliance now requires that the fluids be drained before the car goes to the yard. There’s a system made just to do this. Using nonsparking brass equipment, it punctures a hole in the gas tank and drains it into one compartment while it’s also draining the coolant, oil, and other fluids into other seperate compartments. It’s a cool piece of machinery. The company that manufactures most of these and distributes them nationwide is located on rt. 3A in Merrimack, NH. I toured their facilities a few years back.
I recognize, however, that the back woods may be repleat with noncompliant junkyards.