Poland's cavalcade of junk cars could turn into pot of gold for scrap dealers

The dealers calculate that if the old cars were sold for scrap, recycled parts and metal would be worth zł.500 million a year. "The prices of scrap metal are rising, as well as the number of imported used cars. However, the profitability of car recycling is decreasing because cars out of use simply disappear in the gray zone," said Adam Małyszko, Ambit company president. EU regulations state 85% of old cars must be recycled, creating possibilities for companies to enter the promising market. "We are in talks with most of car producers. We want to take part in creating a professional and effective system of collecting and recycling cars not in use. We project the investment would be worth more than EUR 1 million," said Marek Cywiński, president of Stena, one of the largest scrap metal recycling companies. Car producers and importers selling over 1,000 cars a year are obliged by law to create their own outlets buying old cars for scrap or pay zł.500 from each car sold on the domestic market to the government. The money would be used to create a recycling system. As Poles buy over 300,000 new cars a year the producers would have to pay over zł.150 million. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B1, B2) D.W.