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Environment

Can a new way to recycle cars create a circular motor industry?

What looks like a production line in a UK scrapyard is actually taking cars apart rather than building them – part of efforts to create a more sustainable car industry

By Graham Lawton

14 May 2023

A car at the Charles Trent scrapyard

Cars at the Charles Trent scrapyard get disassembled on a production line, for better recycling of parts

Rich Pearce Photography

I’m not much of a petrolhead and I have never taken a car to pieces before, but there is a first time for everything. I don my gloves, grip a power tool and get to work. After a bit of huffing and puffing, one of the doors comes off, and is spirited away by an overhead hoist.

I am at a car breakers’ yard in Poole, UK, to witness the cutting edge of …

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