Every year in Ohio, more than 100,000 wrecked, burned or otherwise dead cars become the inventory of insurance companies, which then sell the vehicles for parts through salvage auctions.

In most states, insurance companies can sell the vehicles through online auctions to virtually anyone, anywhere.

In Ohio, only 1,097 valid buyer identification card holders can access the pool. And only salvage dealers licensed in Ohio and 21 other states can apply for the card.

Efforts to scrap the buyer card have circulated the Statehouse for years but failed because of the tug of war between insurance agencies and auctioneers seeking higher sales and salvage dealers afraid of losing business.

State Sen. Keith Faber, R-Celina, reintroduced the issue this year with Senate Bill 273.

Read the full article here.

I could not get the whole scoop, but I do know I will be looking out for the Daily Planet over the next few months to see this very cool episode!!

Auto parts city was once considered a menace in the community. But after greening up its act, it’s now earning top environmental awards — including Green Business of the Year from the Green Business League.

It may look like a junkyard, but brothers Jay and Larry Brosten hope to change your mind.

“We’ve spent too many years trying to improve our image and we’ve spent millions of dollars setting this facility up and trying to do the right thing,” said Larry Brosten. “But it’s always had the stigma of the ‘j-word’.”

The three-generation old Auto Parts City in Gurnee just got an $8 million make-over. The family’s goal is to set the green standard in auto recycling.

Good going guys! Keep up the green work! Congratulations to Auto Parts City from everyone here at GreenVehicleDisposal.com

read the entire article here

We caught up with David for a brief chat on Monday morning and when asked how it felt to be voted number one as the most influential auto recycler of 2009 he replied, “I was in shock!  I love the business and love all the great people involved in it.” “It is a huge honor and over at Standard Auto Wreckers we are committed to helping our fellow recyclers across North America and the world.”

It seems the entries for Standard Auto Wreckers and Car-Part exchanged a few words before the big race.  Rumor is Green-Gold Thunder started talking smack first, whispering things like, “you look like you were born in a junkyard” and “get ready to eat my radioactive dust” – Car-Part High Octane replied with, “hey sissy, at least I don’t glow in the dark”.

In the end every horse that participated was a winner because all racing proceeds went to benefit charity!

Workers at the Sunnyvale recycling station ran giddily about early Tuesday morning, catching the cash and stuffing the money inside a plastic bucket. They had even found a body among the hundreds of thousands of tons of recyclables sorted at the SMaRT plant over the years. But cash? Buckets of it? Never.

“It just kept coming,” Geronimo Martinez, 57, a supervisor at the station, said Wednesday, “more and more. It was crazy. I thought at first it was a joke.” All told, they retrieved $3,200 — and now Sunnyvale police are sorting out the mystery of how hundreds of Ben Franklins ended up in the trash. Sunnyvale spokesman John Pilger said the money was in a load of recyclables that came from Mountain View. Could it be drug money? Stolen from a bank? Someone’s life savings? If it’s yours, good luck claiming it.

Pilger said the money has been booked with the city’s Department of Public Safety. If the cash goes unclaimed for 90 days, it will be turned over to the city’s general fund.  That is a bit of a downer, I would like to see half go to charity and the other half go to the workers themselves.

Canada’s own Retire your Ride program is an initiative of The Government of Canada, Clean Air Foundation and its partners, designed to enable people to get their high-polluting cars off the road and reward them for doing so. The program is committed to improving air quality by responsibly recycling vehicles and aims to retire at least 50,000 vehicles per year until March 31, 2011.

And this is all fine and dandy and I am a big supporter of anything that encourages folks to help the environment and it even puts a few bucks in their pockets. But there is a big problem when it comes to the fact that these cars need to be running and insured – and they only get $300 for a car in that condition.

What that means (and I know because I was in this situation with my 1994 Concorde that had only 75k kilometers on it) is: I have to get rid of my current car that is serving its purpose of getting me around to work and play but I only get a paltry $300 which won’t even cover one month of my new car payment of $400 for a Honda Civic. So really what is my incentive? Now if it was like the USA and I was getting a $3,500 discount off my new car I would say whoa, that pays for 10 months of my new car and maybe my old one would be dead by then anyways.

It is good to see various car companies coming out with incentives above the $300 the government is offering but to make this program a ‘real’ success I would like to see the minimum amount raised to $900 or even $1,200 for each car brought in through the program.

The ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program now renamed CARS was a huge success in the USA because it offered a real, worthwhile incentive to get old cars off the road, now it is time for the Canadian government to step up and offer more to make the Retire your Ride program even more successful.

Q. Hi Joe, can you please give us a brief history of your business?

A. Do you want the long version or the short?

Q. Well for this interview let’s go with the medium version?

A. I was an employee at another salvage yard. Basically decided I liked the business and I began to look for and pray for opportunities and the Lord sent several our way. One day I was approached by Charlie Patrick, a long time friend of my dads and the owner of Patrick Auto Parts. He wanted to retire but could not find anyone with the money to buy him out. So he divided his business into smaller specialty yards, found hard working, ambitious young adults who might be interested and offered them an opportunity. Charlie literally put me in business for myself.

Q. I notice your business has a very progressive website, utilizing video, images and some good internal content. Why do you spend so much effort on your site and has it produced positive results?

A. We believe that 50% or more of our business originates on the web.  For this reason we feel we have no choice but to invest in our website.

Q. What do you think the future holds for auto recycling in your local area and across the USA?

A. The number of auto recyclers decreases every year so the ones remaining have more and more opportunity as we move into the future.

Q. What is a typical workday like for you?

A. I get up at 6am, get ready for work, I try to get to 6:45 mass as often as possible, I arrive at work at U-Pull & Save around 7:30am, I try to get through my email first thing.  Then usually I have meetings with my managers.  I try to go to lunch with one of our managers and then I head to our full service yard which is 20 minutes away.  I repeat the morning routine there and before I know it 6pm is here and my wife is calling wondering when I will be home for dinner.  Nothing boring about my work day!

Q. If you were not running this business in this industry what do you think you would be doing right now?

A. Beats me, I cannot think of a business I would rather be in.

Q. If someone was thinking of opening their first auto salvage yard what advice would you have for them?

A. Keep your overhead low, work like a dog and with a little luck you might make it.

Q. Since the auto industry (new cars) has made so much front page news over the past 18 months what is your take on its future and why do think they got into so much trouble in the first place?

A. I think the unions ran the auto industry into the ground and jobs by the millions out of our country.  Also over regulation and government mandates have destroyed auto makers.  Government take over of these industries will only make the problem worse!

Q. When you’re not working or talking cars what do you like to do in your spare time?

A. My family is first so I spend as much time with them as I can.  I like to do volunteer work at church or our local food pantry, I like to water and snow ski, I love going to our lake house.

Q. What is in the short and long-term future of Bessler Auto Parts?

A. Short term our business is booming which makes the long term view look good.  But if we don’t get control of our governments run away spending, we will all be run out of business by taxation.

Thanks for your time Joe and I really enjoyed your honest answers, best of luck in the future.