SRC Recycling wins West Sussex abandoned vehicle contract

The council council in partnership with the seven district and borough councils in West Sussex have signed the contract to ensure all vehicles abandoned in the county are dealt with in compliance with UK environmental regulations.

” It is a contractual condition that the company will remove all abandoned vehicles within 24 hours.“
– Cllr Frank Wilkinson, West Sussex CC
West Sussex said the cars would be crushed and transported to a local metal shredder before being exported for recycling.

Eastergate-based SRC will work closely with Operation Crackdown, which has seen the West Sussex local authorities and Sussex Police aiming for a quick removal of any dumped vehicles.

Frank Wilkinson, county council cabinet member for strategic planning, said: “It is a contractual condition that the company will remove all abandoned vehicles within 24 hours of being established as abandoned.”

Last year, 1800 vehicles were abandoned in West Sussex.

“They are a blot on our landscape, they make an environment feel threatening and they pose a fire hazard – all very good reasons for making sure they are removed as swiftly as possible,” said Cllr Wilkinson.

Depollute
As well as recycling the 75% of all vehicles made from metals, SRC will depollute the vehicles to ensure that hazardous components like oil and fuels are recovered and sent for reprocessing, as required by the End of Life Vehicles regulations.

SRC uses depollution equipment made by SEDA and provided by Rozone Ltd to remove hazardous components from end-of-life vehicles.

The county council said the stricter requirements for the treatment of end-of-life vehicles, as set out in the ELV Regulations of 2003, have increased financial burdens on local authorities. The council said working as a partnership with districts and boroughs was one way to reduce this burden.

Cllr Wilkinson said: “We are meeting this burden without any increase in costs. In fact, the cost will be significantly reduced compared with the amounts we paid last year for the removal of abandoned vehicles in our county. This shows what can happen when local authorities work closely in partnership to their mutual benefit.”