Scrap yard in Edinburgh: free collection instead of a trip

A scrap yard is where an end-of-life car ends up, but you do not have to be the one who takes it there. A recovery vehicle can carry it from your address instead, which matters most for the cars that were never going to make the trip under their own power.

Send the registration and your postcode on WhatsApp and we will confirm whether we can collect and what we can pay. Collection is free: distance is one of the things that sets the price, so the figure quoted already allows for the journey. Payment is by bank transfer, and the paperwork is dealt with by the licensed facility that scraps the car.

Edinburgh is around 145 miles from our Fort William base, and jobs in the city and the Lothians are grouped into scheduled runs rather than sent one at a time. We agree the date when you accept the price. In the centre's permit zones and tenement streets, we need the exact street before a truck is sent. Postcodes, districts and how collection runs in Edinburgh are on our page for Edinburgh.

Getting your car to a yard without driving it

Think about what a yard visit involves from Edinburgh. You need a car that can be legally driven, or a trailer and a vehicle able to tow it. You need to find a yard that takes whole cars, not just scrap metal, and check it is a permitted treatment facility. Then you queue at the weighbridge and accept the figure you are given. Collection removes every one of those steps. We quote first, on WhatsApp, from the registration and your description. Once you accept, we agree a date. The car is lifted onto a recovery vehicle from a drive, a garage or the kerb, as long as the truck can reach it safely, and you never have to move it.

Not every scrap yard can take a car

The phrase scrap yard covers two very different businesses. A scrap metal merchant buys metal: old radiators, cable, cookers and offcuts. It needs a metal dealer's licence from the council, but that alone does not let it take in a whole car. An end-of-life vehicle still holds fuel, oil, coolant, refrigerant and a battery, so the law treats it as hazardous waste until it has been depolluted, and only an Authorised Treatment Facility with an environmental permit from SEPA in Scotland or the Environment Agency in England may do that. That facility is also the only place that can issue a Certificate of Destruction when the car is scrapped. So before you take a car anywhere, ask which kind of yard it is.

Weight, metal prices and the rest of the quote

Two cars of the same age can fetch different prices for good reasons. The first is weight, because scrap value is mainly the metal. The second is what is still fitted: an engine, gearbox, catalytic converter and a full set of wheels all add value that a stripped car does not have. The third is demand for that model's parts. The fourth is the metal market, which moves every week. The fifth is distance and access from our route to your address in Edinburgh. We roll all five into one firm figure and tell you how long it stands. If the car matches your description on the day, that is the figure you are paid, by bank transfer to an account in your name.

Read our full guide to scrap yards and end-of-life recycling, see how we price and collect, or ask for a firm price.