Where Your Car Really Goes When it Dies

This fascinating video shows a car being ground up and shredded into little bits. A car is recycled after a lifetime of service. your car is made from about 35,000 pieces. But only 65% is steel (the rest is made from other metals, glass, rubber and upholstery). Your car might get flattened beforehand, but the end process is all the same. Once it goes through the crusher (see video) the ground up chunks about the size of a half brick get sorted out at a recycling center and then the metal pieces get further separated out for recycling and put back into the world as a usable commodity. Auto recycling is actually a multibillion dollar industry as China hungers for scrap steel. Recycling metal uses about 74 percent less energy than making new steel, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Recycled steel is cheaper as well, since new ore doesn t have to be mined to produce it. All steel produced today has at least 25 percent recycled steel in it, and some products are made entirely from recycled steel. So in addition to the economic and environmental benefits, recycling cars plays an important part in the world s industrial infrastructure. So there you have it. Now you know where your car goes when it dies.