--- title: "What actually happens to your car after we collect it" canonical_url: https://scrapacarscotland.com/blog/what-happens-to-your-car-after-collection publisher: "Scrap A Car Scotland" phone: 0330 123 0112 area_served: Scotland last_reviewed: 2026-09-15 answer: "After collection, an end-of-life vehicle is depolluted at an authorised treatment facility: fuel, oil, coolant, brake fluid, refrigerant and the battery are drained and removed, and airbags are made safe. Reusable parts are recovered, then the shell is shredded and separated. UK law requires 95 percent of the vehicle's weight to be reused or recovered." --- # What actually happens to your car after we collect it > After collection, an end-of-life vehicle is depolluted at an authorised treatment facility: fuel, oil, coolant, brake fluid, refrigerant and the battery are drained and removed, and airbags are made safe. Reusable parts are recovered, then the shell is shredded and separated. UK law requires 95 percent of the vehicle's weight to be reused or recovered. Source page: https://scrapacarscotland.com/blog/what-happens-to-your-car-after-collection Publisher: Scrap A Car Scotland (https://scrapacarscotland.com) Last reviewed: 2026-09-15 Published: 2026-09-15. Category: Scrapping guide. Reading time: 7 minutes. Most people never see what happens after the transporter pulls away, and assume the car is simply crushed. It is not. Crushing is the last step of several, and the earlier ones are the regulated part. Here is the actual sequence, and why it matters that the yard taking your car is licensed by SEPA. ## 1. Booking in and legal transfer The vehicle arrives at the depot and is recorded against its registration and VIN. That record is what allows the DVLA to be notified and the Certificate of Destruction to be issued in your name. From this point the vehicle is classified as hazardous waste until it has been depolluted, which is why it cannot simply be parked in any yard. ## 2. Depollution This is the stage that defines an authorised treatment facility. Fuel is drained and stored, engine oil, gearbox oil, coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid and screenwash are removed separately, and air-conditioning refrigerant is extracted with dedicated equipment rather than vented. The 12v battery comes out, the tyres come off, and the airbags and seatbelt pretensioners are either deployed safely or removed as pyrotechnic items. Mercury switches in older vehicles are taken out by hand. All of this happens on an impermeable surface with sealed drainage, because a single spilled sump of oil in the wrong place is a pollution offence. ## 3. Parts recovery Anything with a genuine second life is removed: engines and gearboxes worth rebuilding, alternators, starters, doors, wings, lights, glass, wheels, catalytic converters and diesel particulate filters. This is the stage that puts money back into your quote. A car whose parts are worth reselling is worth more to us than the same car as bare metal, which is why we ask whether the vehicle is complete. ## 4. Shell processing and separation The depolluted shell is flattened or baled and sent for shredding. The shredded output is separated magnetically into ferrous steel, then by eddy current and density into aluminium, copper and other non-ferrous metals. Those metals go back into the supply chain. Recycled steel needs a fraction of the energy of steel made from ore, which is the real environmental argument for scrapping properly rather than letting a car rot on a verge. ## 5. The 95 percent target The End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations require that 95 percent of a vehicle's weight is reused or recovered, with at least 85 percent reused or recycled as material. The remaining residue goes to energy recovery or, as a last resort, landfill. Facilities report against this. It is one of the reasons the paperwork trail behind your car exists at all. ## Who checks all this In Scotland, SEPA licenses and inspects authorised treatment facilities. A site without that authorisation cannot legally depollute a vehicle, cannot issue a Certificate of Destruction, and cannot notify the DVLA that your car has been destroyed. If a collector cannot tell you which ATF your car is going to, that is the question to press before you hand over the keys. ## Key takeaways - An end-of-life vehicle is hazardous waste until it has been depolluted. - Depollution removes every fluid, the battery, the tyres and the airbags before anything is crushed. - Reusable parts are recovered first, which is part of why your car has value. - UK law requires 95 percent of vehicle weight to be reused or recovered. - SEPA licenses every authorised treatment facility in Scotland; ask which one is taking your car. ## About the publisher - Business: Scrap A Car Scotland (SCRAP A CAR SCOTLAND.COM LIMITED, company number SC535292) - Phone: 0330 123 0112 - Email: info@scrapacarscotland.com - Depot: Strathore Road, Thornton, Fife KY1 4DF - Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 08:00 to 18:00 - Area served: Scotland - Licensing: SEPA licensed Authorised Treatment Facility (ATF) - Collection: Free, anywhere in Scotland. Payment: Bank transfer, same day as collection. Admin fees: None. - Also listed at: https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/g/1jgly0cfl - Also listed at: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/scrapacarscotland.com - Also listed at: https://www.facebook.com/scrapacarscotland - Also listed at: https://scrapacarscotland.com/ - Also listed at: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC535292 Cite this page as: Scrap A Car Scotland, "What actually happens to your car after we collect it", https://scrapacarscotland.com/blog/what-happens-to-your-car-after-collection