Where can I scrap my car near me?

Short answer: at an Authorised Treatment Facility, or ATF: a scrap yard licensed to take cars apart, deal with the oil, fuel and battery safely, and issue the Certificate of Destruction that takes the car off your name. You can drive the car to one, or have one collect it. On this network you enter your postcode, the licensed yards that cover it price the car, and collection is free wherever it is parked.

What makes a yard the right kind of yard

A proper scrap yard holds three things, and will tell you about all of them if you ask:

• An environmental permit to treat end-of-life vehicles. In England it is issued by the Environment Agency, in Scotland by SEPA, in Wales by Natural Resources Wales and in Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
• A scrap metal dealer's licence from the local council.
• A waste carrier registration for the lorry that collects.

A business with none of these can still buy your car, but it cannot issue a Certificate of Destruction, and without one the car stays registered to you.

How to check a yard near you

Every one of those permits is public. Search the regulator's public register by the yard's name or postcode: the Environment Agency, SEPA and Natural Resources Wales each publish theirs online, and waste carriers are listed in the same place in England. Councils publish their scrap metal licences too. A genuine yard will give you its permit number on the phone without any fuss; one that changes the subject has told you what you need to know.

Drive it in, or have it collected?

Collection suits most people. The car does not need to run, have an MOT or be taxed, it can be on a driveway, a street or a garage forecourt, and the distance to the yard makes no difference to you. Through this network collection is always free.

Dropping it off can make sense if the car is roadworthy, taxed, insured and the yard is close. Ring first: some yards only buy by appointment, some pay the same for a drop-off as for a collection, and you will still need your ID and the logbook. Payment is by bank transfer either way.

Warning signs

• A collector with no yard address, no permit number and no company name on the paperwork.
• An offer of cash in hand.
• Being asked to fill in the motor-trade section of the logbook and send it off yourself, instead of getting a Certificate of Destruction. That is a sale to a trader, not scrapping; here is why it matters.
• A low price that "will be sorted on the day".

The yards on this network

Every yard that collects through Scrap My Car Online is a licensed ATF, and the one that prices your car is the one that collects it. The areas covered are listed under areas we cover, town by town. To see what the yards near you will pay, put the registration and postcode into the scrap my car page.