Scrap Cars, the Mercury Legacy, & Clunker Heaven
Switch Out is a Canada-wide initiative originating from the Clean Air Foundation encouraging the safe extraction, collection and management of mercury-containing convenience lighting controls, ride controls, and ABS sensor modules from junk cars destined for the scrap yard. Recycled cars can pose a danger to the environment if these switches are not disposed in a environmentally responsible manner.
These switches comprise 99% of mercury found in cars today. The remainder found in gas HID headlamps and navigational displays; car manufacturer leadership direction is still needed to curtail this. There is only about 0.8 grams of this element in a single switch but it equates to 15 tonnes of mercury driving around Canadian roads, making it the largest source of mercury in Canada.
This partnership is supported by the Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC) and the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries (CARI) and will help the auto industries meet new mercury pollution prevention targets. North American and import auto makers began phasing out mercury switches in 1995. The good news is that these devices have not used in Canadian and American built cars from 2003 onwards. While this is a worthy milestone, there is still a 15 year mercury legacy to deal with. Switch Out has enabled 448 auto recyclers to collect over 170,000 mercury switches nationally since 2001 (200kg of mercury emissions).
So what should you do with your scrap car if it contains these mercury switches? Clunker Heaven is a proud supporter of the Switch Out program. No special steps are required on your part because we take the necessary steps to remove these environmental hazards and arrange for safe disposal prior to crushing the junk cars. We ensure that strict procedures are followed at all times regarding all hazardous fluids and chemicals containment and disposal.