Copart & Recycling Lives – Conscious Collaboration

by | Feb 21, 2022

As part of our ongoing Copart Cares 💙 CSR commitment to caring about communities, good causes, and the environment, it is critical that we work alongside customers, partners, and stakeholders who align with our values.

We pride ourselves on working closely with our partners and customers as part of a growing and concerted effort across our industry to be more environmentally and socially conscious.

Maintaining strong, collaborative relationships not only enables us to identify more environmentally and socially responsible ways of working, but also helps to raises awareness of good causes within our local communities.

Our relationship with Recycling Lives, a business which comprises both charity and social enterprise, is a perfect example of this, aligning with both our Copart Cares and Plan-Net-Zero programmes.

Their recycling operations, which are supported by the scrap vehicles and parts which they buy and sell through Copart, help to sustain charity programmes for offender rehabilitation, residential accommodation, and community food distribution.

Their work includes supporting men and women in prisons across the UK to reduce reoffending rates. By engaging them in meaningful work, they help offenders to develop skills, confidence, and resilience, so they are ready to secure jobs and stable housing upon their release.

Recycling Lives is a long-term customer of Copart and it’s a relationship we are very proud of, as their ethos reflects our own commitment to caring about communities, good causes, and the environment.

From an environmental aspect, our ongoing relationship equates to around 7% of our overall sales to vehicle part distributors and recyclers, helping us to feed the green parts market.

This is, of course, a major aspect of ‘Plan-Net-Zero’ – our formal commitment to both global sustainability and becoming a more sustainable business by achieving net-zero emissions – having renewed our focus on vehicle recycling and green parts.

We know we have a vital part to play in the industry due to the large scale at which we remarket, recycle, and facilitate parts in the UK. We work closely with our customers and the wider network to ensure that our breaker vehicles are sold to reputable and authorised facilities, enabling significant green parts and recycling opportunities.

Around 25% of the vehicles we handle annually are sent to scrap recyclers, like Recycling Lives, and in the last year alone we’ve crushed over 5,000 vehicles for recycling.

We’re very proud that our relationship with this amazing organisation is helping to play a part in adding significant social value to local communities, as well as supporting our ambitions for a greener future.

Jane Pocock, Managing Director of Copart UK & Ireland, said:

“I am a firm believer that developing and maintaining strong relationships with customers and partners, who share the same ethos and values as Copart, is absolutely key to achieving a greener and more socially responsible future. We continually review our approach to Corporate Social Responsibility as part of our ongoing Copart Cares programme and we’re passionate about raising awareness of how we can work with Social Enterprise (SE) businesses like Recycling Lives to support their continued success within our local communities.”