These days it is easier to scrap a car than ever before. With the escalating price of scrap metal, breakers yards are positively crying out for business. Their adverts line the highways and flood the classified sections of local papers and magazines, offering ever more lucrative means of disposing of your unwanted vehicle. These offers do not just extend to free collection of the car, they also guarantee varying amounts of cash, depending on their ever changing offers. It's fair to assume that , considering this state of affairs, the Council have not had much call for their fee charging service for the removal of unwanted vehicles in quite a while. But, in some ways, this is a shame.

The Council is subject to environmental targets, and disposing of household waste is scrupulously monitored to ensure that it meets EEC directives. The disposal of TV's, white goods and motor vehicles is consequently handled in the most cost efficient way, deploying the most environmentally sound methods. Eco-economics is set to become an increasingly important means of generating revenue, as well as ensuring that we live our lives in a more sustainable fashion.

Commercial breakers yards, whilst subject to the same EEC legislation, often don't dispose of unwanted vehicles to the same exacting standards. Stacks of corroding cars, heaped in haphazard lines, forming mass vehicular graveyards, are a common sight throughout the UK's industrial estates. With vehicles left exposed to the elements for years, the integrity of the bodywork becomes susceptible to rust, devaluing the stock from a recycling viewpoint. Private operators are geared up to make a profit, and are therefore more likely to put commercial interest before green considerations. Public services, whilst optimising the commercial value of the scrap, place their full focus on ensuring that waste is handled ethically.

This places people in a difficult position. They have to weigh up the pros and cons of either dealing with an organisation that will charge them money for the disposal of their car, but will do so to very high standards, or they can opt to go with the private sector, earn a bit of cash, and enter the sustainability lottery.

That was until the recent creation of interfacing agencies. Luckily, there is now another means of disposing of unwanted vehicles ethically without incurring a charge for the service. Social enterprises have been set up to capitalise on the increased value of scrap, and will tow away unwanted vehicles and process them using the most ecologically sound facilities, without levying a charge. In addition, they will donate a proportion of the proceeds to a charity of the donor's choice, offering users the chance to appease their conscience in more ways than one!