Recycling Process
The recycling process at Pick-n-Pull begins with the arrival of a new vehicle. We purchase vehicles from many sources including tow companies, private parties, auto auctions, city contracts and charities.
In this case, an individual has a car he no longer needs and has brought it to his nearby Pick-n-Pull location to get some money for it. At the same time, he's comforted to know that his vehicle will be put to good use and recycled.
Our Vehicle Receiving Specialist evaluates the car and offers the owner a fair price. The owner accepts and is paid by check on the spot.
The Vehicle Receiving Specialist enters the new vehicle's information into our state-of-the-art computer system, which assigns a record number for the vehicle. The specialist marks the car with a bar code sticker and other identifying marks so the car can be tracked.
We begin our environmentally friendly dismantling process by emptying the vehicle of any trash and/or leftover items. Some resalable items are collected for our thrift store and resold to our customers at incredible prices.
We continue the dismantling process by removing and recycling fluids and hazardous materials. Batteries are removed, tested and resold or recycled depending on the test results. At the same time, we carefully remove any mercury switches used in the engine compartment and trunk to prevent extremely toxic chemicals from entering our air and waterways. Freon (used by air conditioners), power steering fluid and brake fluid are all removed and recycled or reused.
We then take the vehicle to our specially designed drain racks to remove the remaining fluids including gasoline, oil, antifreeze, differential and transmission fluids. All fluids are put into holding tanks with secondary containment to prevent spills and leaks into the environment.
Now that all the fluids have been drained, the vehicle is taken to the sales floor. But first, the old row of cars is removed, the space cleaned and fresh gravel is laid. Our sales floor is well organized with similar vehicles grouped together. We keep our vehicles rows wide to make shopping easier. We place our vehicles on stands to keep them off the ground which limits the possibility of contact with storm water and makes it easier and safer for customers to remove parts.
A typical retail customer arrives at our facilities with their own tools, pays admission and is provided with a map and assistance in finding vehicles that may contain the part(s) he needs. Our Parts Interchange computer system can help customers find parts by indentifying other vehicles that contain equivalent parts.
The customer finds a vehicle with the desired part and removes it with their own tools. Purchasing parts at Pick-n-Pull is worry-free due to our 30 Day Free Exchange policy on all parts. If a part breaks or doesn't fit, the customer can bring it back and pull another.
After a vehicle has spent some time on the sales floor and customers have pulled most or all of the usable parts, the de-coring process starts. We check for anything that can be reconditioned or that has recycling value. Examples include engines, alternators, wiring harnesses, compressors, torque converters and more.
The final step in the process is to crush the remaining vehicle hulk. We take our crushed vehicles to metal shredders (including those owned by our parent company, if a facility is located nearby).