Salvage
Approximately 12 million cars are recycled each year for an average annual recycling rate of 97.6 percent, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI).
Once vehicles in a wrecking yard have no more usable parts, the hulks are usually sold to a scrap-metal processor, who will usually crush the bodies on-site at the yard's premises using a mobile baling press or flattener, with final disposal occurring within a hammer mill or shredder which literally smashes the vehicle remains into fist sized chunks and capable of shredding steel in any form up to one inch thick.