Junk Car Recycling

The scrap index has dropped world wide. In this time of world financial crisis the scrap metal index has fallen to a twelve (12) month low. This is affecting everybody world wide.

The problem is there are no world buyers. China has shut down their steel smelters for the Olympics. To cut down on pollution. I believe China will open the smelters some time next month. This is a major source of revenue for China.

Not only China but Turkey has stopped buying scrap metal, due to lack of funds. Banks finance most of the world wide metal shipments and banks have stopped even loaning out short loans.

Yes scrap metal is a commodity. but across the board all metals like, silver, gold, and platinum are down big time. I am watching the market on a daily bases.

We are still paying/buying junk vehicles. I just wanted to let everybody know whats going on in the industry. If you need a quote please give us a call at 713-592-2576

[caption id="attachment_62" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Electric steel smelter, used for refining used metal."][/caption]

I want to take the time to write a little post about removing flooded cars from the city of Galveston for free. We will come out and disposed of the vehicles free of charge.

No tittle no problem. We will need a copy of you state issued drivers license or id. We understand that you lost your title in hurricane Ike. Your car has been submerged in salt water. We CAN NOT nor will we sell parts off of them. We are simply going to processes the furious and non-furious metals out of the vehicles.

To have a flooded car removed in Galveston, Texas, please call us to make an appointment 713-592-2576

In the wake of a major disaster in your area, the Better Business Bureau urges new and used car buyers to be cautious of unscrupulous businesses and individuals who may try to sell flood-damaged cars without revealing the vehicles′ history.

The BBB recommends the following tips to help consumers determine if a car is flood-damaged:

Ask to see the title of a used car. Check the date and place of transfer to see if the car came from a flood-damaged state and if the title is stamped “salvage.”

Check all gauges on the dashboard to make sure they are accurate, and to look for signs of water.

Test the lights, windshield wipers, turn signals, cigarette lighter, radio, heater and air conditioner several times to make sure they work. Also, flex some wires under the dash to see if they bend or crack, since wet wires become brittle upon drying and can crack or fail at any time.

Check the trunk, glove compartment, and beneath the seats and dash for signs of mud, rust or water damage.

Look for discolored, faded or stained upholstery and carpeting. Carpeting that has been replaced may fit too loosely or may not match the interior color.

Check for a well-defined line, or watermark, and for musty odors resulting from mildew.

Check out the reliability of the dealer by contacting the Better Business Bureau where the company is located.

If the car’s history seems suspicious, ask the dealer or individual directly if the car has been damaged by flood water.

Before buying any used car, always get a pre-purchase inspection by a trusted mechanic. The extra cost may save you money in the long run.

Don’t Get Soaked Buying a Flood-Damaged Car
In the wake of a major flood in your area, the Better Business Bureau urges new and used car buyers to be cautious of unscrupulous businesses and individuals who may try to sell flood-damaged cars without revealing the vehicles’ history.

The BBB recommends the following tips to help consumers determine if a car is flood-damaged:

Ask to see the title of a used car. Check the date and place of transfer to see if the car came from a flood-damaged state and if the title is stamped “salvage.”

Check all gauges on the dashboard to make sure they are accurate, and to look for signs of water.

Test the lights, windshield wipers, turn signals, cigarette lighter, radio, heater and air conditioner several times to make sure they work. Also, flex some wires under the dash to see if they bend or crack, since wet wires become brittle upon drying and can crack or fail at any time.

Check the trunk, glove compartment, and beneath the seats and dash for signs of mud, rust or water damage.

Look for discolored, faded or stained upholstery and carpeting. Carpeting that has been replaced may fit too loosely or may not match the interior color.

Check for a well-defined line, or watermark, and for musty odors resulting from mildew.

Check out the reliability of the dealer by contacting the Better Business Bureau where the company is located.

If the car’s history seems suspicious, ask the dealer or individual directly if the car has been damaged by flood water.

Before buying any used car, always get a pre-purchase inspection by a trusted mechanic. The extra cost may save you money in the long run if major problems are discovered.

Full story at BBB Website

We are starting a new program. If you have lost your title to your vehicle and you have no way to obtain the title, we will remove it free for you.

Let’s say you bought a car a few years back and you never transferred the title into your name. Then you lost that title. We can now tow it off for you. We are calling this our “Free Junk Car Removal.” There is no charge for this service. We also tow the vehicle for free. You call us at 713-592-2576 we ask a few questions then you tell us when you would like us to pick up the vehicle. Its that easy.

Now if the car is in your name contact us for information on how to obtain a title. If you have a title we are still paying cash on the spot for your old junk cars or trucks.

Steel’s importance in automobiles
We rely on automobiles to transport us from place to place.
We also rely on automobiles to keep us safe. Fortunately auto
manufacturers depend on steel to protect their customers. In
addition to its strength, durability and dependability, steel is
also recyclable and contains recycled steel.
Nationwide recycling efforts
Automobiles are the most recycled consumer product. Each
year, the steel industry recycles more than 14 million tons of
steel from end-of-life vehicles. This is equivalent to nearly 13.5
million automobiles. When comparing the amount of steel
recycled from automobiles each year to the amount of steel
used to produce new automobiles that same year, automobiles maintain a recycling rate of nearly
100 percent.

Recycled content of automobiles
By weight, the typical passenger car consists of about 65 percent steel and iron. The steel used in
car bodies is made with about 25 percent recycled steel.
Many internal steel and iron parts are made using even higher percentages of recycled steel. All
steel products contain recycled steel because steel scrap is a necessary ingredient in the production
of new steel.
Steel scrap is derived not only from automobiles but also from steel cans, appliances and
construction material.

The basics of recycling automobiles
Old cars are typically hauled to an automobile dismantler, where reusable parts are removed. After
removing the reusable parts and other items like batteries, tires and fluids, the hulks are usually
shipped to ferrous scrap processors where they are weighed for payment and unloaded.
At a scrap yard, the automobiles enter the shredder. The shredding process, which handles one car
every 45 seconds, generates three streams: iron and steel nonferrous metal and fluff (fabric,
rubber, glass, etc.). The iron and steel are magnetically separated from the other materials and
recycled.
The iron and steel is then shipped to end markets or steel mills where it is recycled to produce new
steel.

Environmental Benefits
Recycling steel saves energy and natural resources. The steel industry annually saves the
equivalent energy to power about 18 million households for a year. Recycling one ton of steel
conserves 2500 pounds of iron ore, 1400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone.

[caption id="attachment_44" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Junk cars ready to be recycled."][/caption]

The multi-billion dollar worldwide recycling industry performs a vital social and environmental function. The industry has no peer in terms of conserving the world’s resources while the various stages of the recycling process provide employment for millions of people all around the world. Using skills honed over many centuries, recyclers collect products that have reached the end of their useful lives and then transform them into highly valuable secondary raw materials that can be fed back into the manufacturing process. These secondary materials have to conform to critical specifications laid down by consumers, who include the world’s leading steelmakers, foundries and paper/board manufacturers. If it were not for the recycling industry’s professionalism, expertise and large-scale investment, a substantial proportion of these end-of-life goods would be consigned to landfill and the valuable materials they contained would be lost to the production cycle for ever. Furthermore, some potentially useful materials would become hazards rather than being retained as a resource.

The creation of secondary raw materials via the recycling route also expends far less energy than production based on primary raw materials. Recycling affords the following energy savings compared to this primary route:

Furthermore, it has been calculated that producing paper via the recycling route entails 35% less water pollution and 74% less air pollution. Meanwhile, producing steel from scrap means 86% less air pollution.

The recycling industry’s contribution to protecting the environment would not be possible without its massive expenditure on often highly sophisticated plant, machinery and equipment. Indeed, it has been calculated that the industry - which comprises a large proportion of privately-owned enterprises - invests around US$ 20 billion each year on new equipment and research &amp development.

Recycling is as old as humanity itself and may well have been born when a stone age hunter splintered his flint axe and realised that the fragments would make excellent arrowheads. It truly came into its own with the industrial revolution when redundant ferrous and non-ferrous metals became standard feedstock for the metallurgical industries. Furthermore, it was found that recovered paper could be reduced to its original pulp form and so made into new paper.

Recycling may have been breathing new life into obsolete products and materials for thousands of years but conservation of the planet’s resources has become a particularly high-profile issue over recent decades. Some of this attention has focused on, for example, how to increase demand for products with a recycled content and how to design new products with their future recycling in mind. The recycling industry is not responsible for the initial design of the products they recover and yet, thanks to its experience and expertise in this area, it has been instrumental in devising innovative recycling solutions. At the same time, the industry has consistently argued in favour of recycling being taken into account at earliest stage of a product’s development.

The influence of the recycling industry has extended into many other areas of critical commercial, environmental and social importance - such as radioactivity in scrap. At United Nations level, for example, the industry has promoted a logical system to encourage co-operation between all those forced to deal with this potential problem, including smelters, recycling operators, governments and disposers of radioactive residues.

BIR and its affiliated organisations have led the recycling industry’s response to a vast range of new legislation covering everything from end-of-life vehicles and waste electrical and electronic equipment, to waste shipment regulations. The legislative burden imposed on the recycling industry has become far heavier over recent years, with some of the new rules and regulations appearing to be detrimental to recycling as a whole. Particularly problematical has been the decision by some legislators to regard recyclables as “waste″ rather than as valuable secondary raw materials for which consuming industries are prepared to pay a market price. Indeed, definition of recyclables as “waste″ has threatened to hinder the international trade in this indispensable commodity.

All countries with industrial production capacity have a need to consume raw materials and so demand for recycled commodities is truly global. International trade in secondary materials is necessary to supply steelworks, foundries, paper mills, textiles industry and rubber etc. with feedstock material for further environmentally sound production. As the focus of industrial production shifts away from industrialised nations towards the developing world, so there is also a shift in flows of secondary raw materials. Today, for example, huge volumes of scrap metal recovered from end-of-life products in the Western World are being shipped to China and other, rapidly-industrialising countries in Asia.

In its discussions with the United Nations, the OECD and other supra-national bodies, world recycling body BIR and its various member federations and associations have battled over many years to remove the “waste″ label from its products. In addition, BIR has always strongly advocated the free flow of secondary material between nations and, by mutual efforts, has succeeded in breaking down many trade barriers. The organisation has had to remain vigilant to the constant threat posed by import and export restrictions as well as other protectionist measures. In recent times, for example, BIR and the US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) have played a pivotal role in smoothing the flow of recyclables to China by working with the nation’s regulators to create a workable registration regime for overseas exporters to the country.

Curtsy of BIR

I wanted to take a minute to mention the differences between freshwater damage versus salt water damage. The main thing that a salt water flooded car does is rust out the car immediately. With then days you can look behind the rubber that is on the door and you will see rust starting to form. This is the salt starting to eat away at the metal on your car body.

Salt water damages your electrical connection in your car real bad. With in days the electric motors are trash. It’s all most like taking your car and dropping it into a vat of acid and quickly taking it out.

Fresh water flood damage is bad but no where near the same as salt water. With fresh water you can drain the all of your vehicles fluids, replace all the filters, and more then likely your vehicle will start an you will be able to drive it.

I don′t know of any junk yards that will purchase known salt water flooded cars. The damage is just to severe. Nothing can be sold to the general public. The parts are either to corroded or the parts rust apart.

Ike was a major storm that hit us all. We are a great community here in the Houston Area. Today about 2 p.m. we got power back to our home. We have not seen our shop/work area yet. I know this is a trying time for everybody. I want everybody to know that my family is praying for everybody that has been affected by Hurricane Ike. We were all affected by this horrible storm. But we will all recover!! Remember this is the time to help each other!!

I’m hoping that we can resume picking up cars by next week. This of course depends on if we can get fuel for our vehicles.

Yes we buy wrecked or flooded cars. If your car is wrecked or flooded we will buy it. Remember we tow your car for free.

When we purchase a wrecked or flooded car, it will never be on the road again. If the car has been wrecked or flooded we drain the fluids out and recycle them. Flooded cars parts are not resold to core buyers or to the public. We only recycle the metal in them.

Wrecked cars are judged on a case by case bases. We never, ever resell your junk automobiles to be put back on the road. We recycle the metals and plastics that you vehicle is made from.

Please feel free to contact us for a quote by calling us, 713-592-2576 or filling out or submit form. Thank you for reading our junk car blog and please subscribe to updates.

In the Junk Car Industry teaser quotes are when a junk buyer gives a high quote knowing that he is not going to pay that price. The reason some companies do this dishonest practice is to simply get out and look at the car.

Once this dishonest company gets to your house or where ever you have the car. They find a reason to go down on the price. Usually they say the car is not how it was described to them. Then they go way down on their original quote.

When we give you a quote we do our best to ask all the right questions in order to give you the right quote. In some cases we will give to a quote that may start at one rate and end at a higher rate.

The reason we do this is due to several factors, the main facter is the catalatic converter. We are looking for factory catalatic converters. After market catalatic converters are not worth near as much as factory catalatic converters.

So watch out for teaser quotes/rates. Just because a junk buyer gives you a high quote does not mean it is an accurate quote. You can depend on us to give you an accurate and dependable quote.