New to the UK – End-of-Life Cars for Charity

A new service called Giveacar, launched earlier this year, organises the donation of end-of-life cars to charity. Giveacar is spearheaded by the young social entrepreneur Tom Chance and is aiming to capture a large part of the end-of-life vehicle recycling market through its unique selling point.
Though Giveacar’s primary aim is raise money for registered charities, the service is keen to promote effective vehicle recycling in order to reduce the environmental impact of end-of-life cars. Giveacar only uses the salvage operators Cartakeback and Bluecycle to collect vehicles.
We had a few words with Tom Chance to see his views on the salvage market:
“Having only known this market for six months, I have still got a huge amount to learn, but it seems there is an unnerving knowledge gap in the car recycling industry. Household recycling is so well publicised, yet given the potential damage of an end-of-life car, I find it strange that the general public seems misinformed. We compete with the kind of companies that advertise on lampposts, and we need more help from the government and DVLA to ensure that the public is informed of how to properly dispose of a vehicle.”
Giveacar is using its environmentally-friendly ethos to market the concept. Major environmental charities such as Keep Britain Tidy and Keep Scotland Beautiful, as well as many local councils, have recently started promoting the scheme. Car donation is therefore gradually gaining momentum in the UK salvage industry, adding another pocket to an already-congested marketplace.