The price of scrap is at its highest levels for many years transforming the situation where last owners often had to pay about 20 for the disposal of their vehicles. Such is the price of scrap now, some firms are taking adverts out in local papers offering to pay 20 for end of life vehicles (ELVs).
As a consequence of the high prices, some dismantlers with local authority contracts for removal of abandoned vehicles are facing tough times because what has been described as a “league of industrious gentlemen” is removing the vehicles instead.
One dismantler said: “It’s a shame, really. Over the last couple of years, the low price of scrap meant those illegal operators were getting out of the game, but the high price of scrap is encouraging them to get in again.
He added: “Our contracts are based on compliance with the environmental standards, but these guys don’t have any of that to worry about. Effectively they are stealing these vehicles.”
Duncan Wemyss, secretary of the Motor Vehicle Dismantlers Association, said: “There is an element of people who recognise the value of scrap metal, recognise the sticker on the window of an abandoned vehicle and take that vehicle to a scrap merchant. They purport that it is their vehicle to dispose of, so the scrap merchant is doing nothing illegal in taking that vehicle.”
Mr Wemyss said that the MVDA hoped that continuous registration will help – through which last owners will have to take out a license for their vehicle or record that it is not on the road.
Grey area
Some dismantlers have accused local authorities of cashing in on the illegal operators, with one telling letsrecycle.com that he believed councils were deciding to use seven-day notices on abandoned vehicles rather than 24-hour notices to give more time for them to be dealt with through unofficial means.
Chas Ambrose of Charles Trent, a major dismantling business in the south of England, which has seen its local authority service hit by the influx of “illegal” operators, said in all fairness, councils have to be aware of the risk of being sued by car owners for wrongful removal.
Mr Ambrose said that the Environment Agency needed to start regulating the waste carrier side more effectively. And, he said, the easiest point in the chain to target with enforcement would be at the gate of vehicle shredder companies.
“The key point where there could be easiest enforcement is at the shredder – you’ve only got 35 sites there. If you had an EA person there checking, saying you can take that vehicle, not that one, pretty soon the message would get through.”
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