Last Updated: August 26, 2026
Most people think of a junkyard as a graveyard for old cars—rows of rusting metal slowly decaying. But if you’ve ever walked the WA Auto Parts yard in Perth you’d see something very different. Every car that comes through our gates is on a journey. Parts are pulled, fluids are safely drained, metals are sorted and shipped out to be melted. Nothing is hardly in use. Almost nothing is wasted.
We have been doing this since 1987. In that time we’ve broken down thousands of vehicles – cars, trucks, 4WDs, SUVs – and know what responsible vehicle recycling really is. This is the reality of the process, and why it matters so much more than most people think.
The Problem with Simply “Throwing Away” a Car
A car is not a broken appliance to be thrown in a bin. Vehicles average between 1,200 and 2,000 kilograms in weight and are made up of steel, aluminium, copper, rubber, glass, plastic and a cocktail of hazardous fluids — motor oil, coolant, brake fluid, battery acid, transmission fluid.
Leave an unwanted car in a paddock or a backyard and those fluids don’t just sit there. They sink into the earth. They can even find their way down into groundwater. In a place like Western Australia, we are acutely aware of how precious our natural environment is, and that’s not a theoretical risk. This is the real one.
Every year tens of thousands of vehicles reach end of life across WA. What happens to them is important.
Step 1: Depollution — Before Anything Else
The first thing that happens to any vehicle that enters our yard is not the stripping of parts. It’s depollution.
Before any dismantling begins, all the fluids are drained from the car and collected in sealed containers – engine oil, coolant, brake fluid, transmission fluid, the works. These are then dealt with by licensed waste disposal specialists who recycle or dispose of them under strict environmental regulations.
The battery is carefully removed, as are any mercury switches in the older models. Both have seriously bad materials if they get to landfill.
It’s not the most exciting part of our job, but it might be the most important. This step alone prevents a worn out car from becoming a slow release pollution source sitting in the ground for decades.
Step 2: Parts That Still Have Life in Them Get a Second Life
The real work of salvage begins after a vehicle has been depolluted. “We dismantle the car in an orderly fashion. We remove parts that we can still use and inspect them and place them on the shelf.
Alternator with many years of life left to go. A good set of doors. Gearbox from a model that has become scarce for parts. They don’t need to build them from scratch, they just need to find the right car.
This is the best form of recycling and one that people don’t think about. Yes, buying a used auto part is economical as compared to buying a brand new one. But it also saves the energy and raw materials that would have been used to produce that replacement from scratch. That’s a real win for the environment.
We carry parts for most major makes – Japanese, European, Korean, Australian, American. Holden, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Mazda, Subaru, Mercedes-Benz and many more. If you are after something specific give us a call on (08) 9358 1392 and we will check what stock we have in.
Step 3: What’s Left Gets Recycled — and the Numbers Are Worth Knowing
Once the usable parts are removed, the remaining shell is not “junk.” It’s raw stuff.”
The steel body, the aluminium parts, the copper wiring — all of it gets sorted and sold to metal processors. This is where some of the biggest environmental wins happen, and the numbers behind it are staggering.
Recycling steel uses around 76% less energy than making it from iron ore. For aluminium it’s 95%. Mining bauxite and turning it into aluminium is one of the most energy-intensive industrial processes there is – recycling what’s already in circulation avoids nearly all of it.
A properly run vehicle recycling operation can reclaim up to 90% of a car’s weight, regardless of the material. That’s 90% of that steel, aluminium, copper and plastic that doesn’t end up in landfill – and doesn’t need to be dug out of the ground again to meet demand.
Why This Is Bigger Than Just One Car
Car wreckers are at the centre of a recycling loop that feeds into something bigger. Materials that might otherwise be mined, used once and buried remain in circulation. Less pressure on mining Less energy burned in production Less waste in the ground
Practically this means a car comes in, fluids come out, usable parts go on the shelf, metal goes to processors and very little goes to waste. An alternator we pull from a wrecked car and sell to someone rebuilding their daily driver didn’t need to be built from the ground up. Multiply that by thousands of vehicles a year and the savings pile up quickly.
Got an Old Car Sitting Around?
If you have a vehicle that’s not being driven anymore – written off, too expensive to repair or just sitting there taking up space – it doesn’t have to sit there collecting rust.
So if you sell it for scrap, it’s got to go through the whole process. And the parts get reused. The metals are recycled. The fluids are well managed. And you get paid for that.
For over 30 years, WA Auto Parts has been doing this work in Perth. We are local. We know what we are doing. And we take the environmental side of it seriously, not just because it’s good political talk, but because this is our city and our state too.
For a quote on your vehicle or to enquire about a specific used part you need, call us on (08) 9358 1392.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Are car wreckers environmentally friendly?
Yes — a professional car wrecker like WA Auto Parts will drain all dangerous fluids before dismantling, salvage usable parts and send the remaining metal for recycling. Very little of the vehicle goes to landfill.
Q2. What happens to the liquids in a crashed car?
First, all fluids (engine oil, coolant, brake fluid, transmission fluid, etc.) are drained into sealed containers. Disposal or recycling is then carried out by licensed waste specialists in line with WA environmental regulations.
Q3. How much of a car is actually recycled?
Professional wrecking can recover up to 90% of a vehicle’s weight. This includes steel, aluminium, copper wiring, glass and plastic – most of which is put back into circulation, not the ground.
Q4. Is buying a used auto part environmentally friendly?
It is. Usepart is a part that did not have to be manufactured from raw materials. That means less mining, less energy use and less waste – and for common makes like Toyota, Ford or Holden, quality used parts are easy to find.
Q5. What do I do with a car that is not roadworthy anymore?
Do not let it sit in the yard and leak fluids into the soil. A professional wrecker will come and pick it up, do the right thing and pay you for your vehicle. Call WA Auto Parts on (08) 9358 1392 for a quote.