It's a bit of a contradiction that at a time when Americans are more concerned about the environment than ever before, that one of the few traditional recycling practices of America's past is rapidly disappearing. Salvage Yards used to be a right of passage for many 16-21 year olds trying to keep their first car running.

The young and the mechanically inclined used to have a choice among many salvage yards when they tried to keep a cheap car on the road, make a clunker a bit more attractive, or get a hand me down running again.

Today, the value of salvage yard real estate, the complexity of computer based automotive systems, and our shrinking mechanical skills, mean that salvage yards are closing at an alarming rate.

The reality should be different. Here at Junkacar, the ultimate green policy is to reuse as much as possible. As long as a car meets current emissions standards, keeping an old car on the road is not only a Green statement, but our mission. In these current economic times, salvage yards should also be in greater demand as people struggle to make due with less.

Instead, salvage yards are well on their way to becoming extinct. Junkacar is fighting that trend by not only giving you the most for your junk car but by saving and reusing all that is good with your old car.

Demand for recycled steel in India and China has kept that price high and made it more profitable to simply recycle the metal and throw the rest in a landfill. In addition, even the least desirable cars used to be exported to foreign salvage yards to facilitate used car repairs in third world countries. The cost of fuel and transportation costs have conspired to reverse that trend as well.

While the death of the old fashioned salvage yard may not elicit the type of books and popular laments that the death of Route 66 has in our popular culture, the diminishing number of salvage yards means a great deal.

It means that Americans rarely fix the old, we just buy new. It means that teens won't be taught the traditional lessons of thrift and self-reliance. It means that worldwide markets, declining American mechanical skill, and the presence of computer chips in almost everything, have virtually killed the salvage yard. Junkacar has and will fight this trend by safely recycling all old cars and saving our environment and planet for our kids.