A CAR SHREDDER
http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=c83358ee7d5c
This thing is relentless! It even eats the engine and transmission. But it appears they had drained the fluids.
Yes, the law requires removal of the gas tank and draining the fluids. That’s both for safety and environmental reasons. Old F12 refrigerant which is no longer manufactured is cleaned up and resold.
I wonder if they had to do more than just drain the fluids, which could leave a fair amount behind. Specially if the engine was sludged up.
Wow…I’ve owned a couple of cars that I would liked to had run through that thing just for punishment. A LeBaron and a Sable. Worst cars on the planet for me.
When I put my last car through the shredder they just drained the oil, removed the battery, took off the gas tank and away she went. This car did not have A/C.
Removing other fluids is too laborious and there is not enough of them to cause a fire or explosion.
Batteries are removed for their lead and are recycled separately as they contain sulfuric acid.
Shredding is not a high margin business when steel prices are low, and the local guy here now has a used parts department as well.
There’s a company in Merrimack NH that makes machinery that punctures the bottoms of fluid-containers including the gas tank and drains and compartmentalizes all the fluids for recycling and/or proper disposal. It’s puncturing and draining parts are all brass to prevent the possibility of sparks. It’s specifically designed for automotive recycling, and it’s shipped all over the country. They demonstrated it to me and it’s really cool.
Neat. Watch your fingers though. I’m sure the next stop is the blast furnaces where everything is burned off anyway.
“I’ve owned a couple of cars that I would liked to had run through that thing just for punishment”
Yeah I get this warm fuzzy feeling thinking that my old Morris with Lucas electricals met a similar fate at some point. Bye bye Christine.
You know, I’ve been thinking that the first generation of cars with high end electronics, stereos, LCD screens, computers, etc, are just now beginning to make their way to the scrap yards. Think they’re gonna take the time to properly remove all of those electronics and recycle them before crushing and shredding.
Nah, me neither.
I never thought about that, but it’s a good point. Although I imagine someone knowledgeable, like a few youth offenders I’ve known, could strip a car of its electronics in moments. Pay one $20/hr and he could probably strip out $200/hr worth of electronics. And still have time left for lunch!