Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a passenger vehicle dismantler and recycler here in Japan. This facility was interesting because of the range of activities conducted at the site, as well as the care taken in material recovery.
This facility dismantles vehicles non-destructively, which maximises the number of parts that can be reused. This careful dismantling requires more time and skilled labour than other approaches, but results in more intact parts that can be reused. At another recycling facility, I have seen whole engine blocks removed using an excavator with a pincer attachment, which is fast though causes significant damage.
The vehicle parts recovered at this facility are exported to foreign markets. For these parts to retain value on the used parts market, there must be some demand from the vehicle stock in the destination country, and parts need to be in good-condition. It was obvious some work would be required to sort, clean and test the tangle of parts before reuse would be possible.
Parts that cannot be reused are transferred to other facilities for further processing, for example electric wiring harnesses are shipped for shredding and crushing to recover the bare copper insider.
This facility also has the capability to melt and recast scrap iron into basic parts. While these recast are relatively simple products, this allows the facility to perform provide value-added services. Care must be taken to avoid contaminating the melt with other materials and metal alloys.
For a further discussion about relationship to materials in our society see https://www.quoll.co/blog/repairing-our-material-relationships.