Always felt constant environmental guilt while staring at your run down old car. You are not alone among us. Cars use resources; they also contaminate the surroundings. Many believe once they are destroyed they have become trash. More for the environment, though, selling your lot for salvage or spares to those with cash for damaged cars than you may believe.

Let us now run backwards first. Building one car could take more than 39,000 liters of water and produce the same CO₂ emissions as family flying from Sydney to Los Angeles and back. That before you have covered a kilometer. Broken cars left sitting leak fluids, rust into the ground, and have nothing whatever to do with the “reduce, reuse, recycle” mindset. Like with a squandered lunch, nobody wins especially not the world.

Right now, sales have magical power. A silent revolution begins once your clunker reaches hands of experts for vehicle removers or recyclers. Once weight is taken into account, around 90% of abandoned vehicle parts can be recycled or used. That’s steel, aluminum, copper, glass sent straight back into the manufacturing line to make new cars, cans, and components. The loop closes and mining demand declines. Recycling steel really reduces emissions by roughly 80% by saving around 75% of the energy consumed in manufacturing from scratch. That is your old engine battling climate change even if it will not turn over at last.

Magicians also deal with waste in scrap yards. Liquids including antifreeze, brake fluids, and oil were sucked out and stored far from rivers and ground. footsteps? There are no mounds in their finish. Many times they are turned back into playground surfaces, road base, or even fuel. That ancient battery tucked under the bonnet? It’s collected for polypropylene and lead, thereby saving resources for upcoming trips and preventing hazardous landfill leaks.

Part reuse is another often overlooked benefit. Say your gearbox survived; a wrecker may remove the transmission and sell it, giving another vehicle new life from your bonnet. One less new item someone has to purchase results in a smaller worldwide carbon footprint from less new components.

Cash in your wrecked car will benefit you more than merely your pocketbook. Globally, this heavy hitting exercise reduces pollution, turns apparently dead weight into new resources, and supports ecologically friendly manufacturing. A clunker may be considered as such an environmental hero. Who guessed that? Give your car farewell; one recycled bumper at a time will be immensely appreciated by Earth.