Send your car to junkyard for recycling and make 500,000 won

▲ Korea Auto Dismantlement Recycling Association / President Hong Suk-gwang

South Korea is the firth auto maker in the world after US, China, Germany and Japan. According to Hong Suk-gwang, the president of the Korea Auto Dismantlement Recycling Association, around 1 million cars are scrapped a year in South Korea alone. He says that it means that recycling the cars would create 11.5 trillion won (12.9 billion USD) worth monetary value.

Korea Auto Dismantlement Recycling Association set sail in 1985 as a non-profit affiliate body of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (now Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport). The association changed its name to the current name in 2010 in accordance with the revised Automobile Management Act.

The association said that the scale of the car recycling industry in South Korea is estimated around 800 billion won (712 million USD) and the 538 member companies of the association is creating 500 billion won worth economic value a year. The amount of scrap iron and nonferrous metals are calculated more than 1 million tons a year and they are reused through various channels. 

"We call junkyards as the mines in the city where irons, metals, rare metals, plastics and rubbers are separated for recycle. We can recycle 95% of these. Also it is one of our important jobs to treat refrigerant, lithium, cobalt, freon gas and engine oil with utmost care as they contaminate environment otherwise" says Hong.

The car windows can be used to make glass, car seats for purse and briefcase, tires for soil holder and fuel, and oil filter for cans and fridges. As for the scrap iron, South Korea exported it to China and made billions of dollars last year according to Hong. If you have a sedan and want to get rid of it you can make a deal with a junkyard runner nearby and earn about 400,000 or 500,000 won (445 USD).

Hong has received numerous citations including one from Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. He is serving as the head of the Rotary 11 of the 3590 region. PowerKorea.