GENSCO

Gensco mobilizes to help ELV facilities and auto recyclers find better ways to handle restrictions legislated to reduce the risks of pollution from the auto recycling process. Gensco’s thriving partnerships with trailblazing auto recycling equipment manufacturers places the company in a position to offer simple and economical equipment that can achieve profit growth while meeting legislative requirements. 

In the past five years federal and state automotive recycling laws have changed dramatically. 

In 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed the Clean Air Act (CAA), which mandates that all states in the US control the release of harmful emissions into the air. This has led to increased pressure on US automotive recycling facilities to ensure environmental compliance in various areas, including depolluting end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) and implementing a Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasures Plan (SPCC). 

State-specific regulations vary with the following states taking the lead: 

• California – Strictest regulations under the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), requiring detailed fluid management records.
• New York – Mandates zero-discharge policies for fluids at dismantling facilities.
• Texas – Requires licensed disposal facilities for hazardous waste.
• Florida – Strict stormwater management rules to prevent runoff contamination.
• Michigan – Enforces stringent used oil recycling laws under state hazardous waste guidelines.

How can auto recyclers remain competitive, profitable, and compliant? Here are four strategies that can help:

1. Utilize efficient equipment for dismantling and depollution. Consider systems like conveyors, lifts, racks, tilting clamp tables (allowing vehicles to be at various angles for part removal), and itemized drill pumps that can siphon and separate fluids, ensuring compliant containment without further handling.  Specialized Battery Removal lifts.
2. Automate your processes. Implement software that records your activities in real-time, tracks fluid inventory, associates fluids with specific vehicles, and records license plates while shredding. For advanced automation, use robotic clamp tables that can be operator controlled with precision for rapid, touchless dismantling of valuable parts.
3. Enhance the value of collected materials. Invest in a high-quality granulator/separator (wire chopping line) to increase the value of aluminum and copper from wire harnesses while lowering shipping costs. If you are recycling steel and aluminum rims, avoid using poorly made and unsafe rim crushers. They will crumble the aluminum down grading it’s value to “mixed aluminum”. Rather opt for a rim popper to retain their shape which improves buyer confidence and garners higher rates.
4. Manage fluids wisely. Choose depollution equipment that provides a clear view of the drained fluids and seamlessly directs higher grade fluids to a dedicated container. These fluids can be reused in your operational vehicles and machinery, sold at a higher rate, or used as employee incentives (free gas, washer fluid, and coolant). Even motor oil can yield a profit by using a Waste Oil Burner to heat your business, although it’s no longer fit for use in vehicles.

Gensco provides a wide range of purpose-built systems and equipment for recycling operations of various sizes to help facilitate strategies such as the ones we have discussed above. Their depollution equipment can: 

• recover gas, diesel, AdBlue, oil, Freon, and fluids.
• deploy airbags safely, recovering LPG and NPG.
• cut catalytic converter and shred license plates; and
• provide high-precision vehicle dismantler grapples/clamps.

Hydraulic lifts with built-in drill drainage systems are designed for easy extraction, separation, and compliant storage of various fluids. Fluid and fuel quality can be assessed and either reused on-site or sold for revenue. Gensco also provides systems that are compatible with customer racks, ramps and lifts already in place. 

Hydraulic clamping/tilting tables simplify the safe extraction of valuable parts from an ELV such as alternators, wire harnesses and catalytic converters, and the company provides the equipment to process these parts further and recover copper, palladium, platinum and rhodium. 

Aligning your facility with Federal and State standards might require an initial investment and adjustment, but strategic investment will place you ahead of competitors as they scramble to meet increasing legislative and enforcement pressures.