Each year, more than 1.4 million vehicles are scrapped in France, because they have been involved in an accident, or have suffered an irreparable or too expensive breakdown according to the insurance companies.
Instead of throwing them away and compressing them in scrapyards, they are now recycled in specialized companies such as Surplus Auto, in the Tarn.
On 30 hectares, this group is one of the first in Europe to have developed recycling on an industrial scale.
Cars as far as the eye can see, but also buses, tractors, trucks, motorhomes and even combine harvesters.
You could imagine yourself at a car manufacturer or a dealership.
But on closer inspection, these vehicles are sometimes a little, even downright stamped.
Even if others don't have a scratch.
These can be reconditioned with used spare parts and put back on sale.
This is sometimes the case in this ultramodern recycling company located in Gaillac, in the Tarn.
Far from the image of traditional car scrapyards, the Surplus Recycling group has decided to develop a real industrial complex where the smell of grease has almost disappeared.
Here, over an area of 30 hectares, each year the 24,000 end-of-life vehicles purchased from insurance companies or recovered from private individuals are treated.
Often on the chain.
When a mechanic will take two hours to get out and dissect a powertrain, in these workshops, it will take less than half an hour.
"We have automated as much as possible to be as efficient as possible", explains Laurent Hérail, the founding president of the group which has just inaugurated the extension of its site, capable of managing 35,000 cars each year.
This autodidact understood well before the crisis of raw materials the interest of recovering dashboards, oils but also electrical components to "reuse them instead of throwing them away".
“Our core business is spare parts.
We recover them to give them a second life, we certify them and sell them to individuals but also to professionals.
Everything that is not reconditioned goes to crushers, ie around 1,000 tonnes per month.
This means that we have a recycling rate of 95% of the weight of the vehicle, which is important when we compare it, for example, to household appliances, which is far from such a result”, assures this boss who employs today 183 people.
A response to supply difficulties
On average, on each car, about twenty parts will integrate the second-hand circuit and this will be resold on an online site to individuals and professionals.
They will be chosen because they are in good condition, or because they meet demand.
On the motorcycle market, which has a lot of enthusiasts, 30 to 35 spare parts will be recovered.
“But we are far from the Nordic countries, Italy or Spain where it is a culture and where 40 to 50 parts of a vehicle will be reused.
There, second-hand spare parts represent 20% of the spare parts market, in the United States it is 25%, while in France it is only 4%", deplores Benjamin Hérail, who ensures the general management of the group.
However, since 2017, mechanics have been able to offer their customers the choice between new or used parts.
If for several years, buyers have hesitated to choose second-hand, the difficulties of supply, in particular of electronic components, the tendency to "green" but also the price, 50 to 70% cheaper, could change gives it.
When we know that each year more than 1.4 million so-called end-of-life vehicles are scrapped, this leaves prospects for recyclers.
In Gaillac, far from being limited to spare parts, the company now reconditions each year 2,400 cars put back on sale with nearly 30% of reused parts.
And a new subsidiary is being created to determine how, in the future, the batteries of electric vehicles can be reused.
Instead of being thrown away and polluting.
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