ARC looks to continue and elevate its support for the auto recycling industry in Canada.

When Steve Fletcher announced he was stepping away from day-to-day activities at the Automotive Recyclers of Canada I felt very privileged in being named the new Executive Director of the association.

I’ve worked with Steve for 25 years, including serving as chair of the board and have seen firsthand the incredible work he has done in advancing the auto recycling industry in Canada. Realizing that I have some very big shoes to fill, my goal is to build upon what ARC has achieved under Steve’s guidance and a big part of that is reaching out to the provincial associations, understanding the issues their members are facing across the country and creating an action plan going forward.

Industry trends

Like many things, the auto recycling sector is constantly changing and being aware of trends shaping the industry is essential to its survival. One aspect we will be looking at making changes to, is the Retire Your Ride program that ARC originally launched back in 2009. I was fortunate to be there at the inception of this program and see it evolve as ARC made additions and alterations to it.

While it has been successful, there has been an increasing need to review Retire Your Ride and perhaps reboot it. The key to this program succeeding long term, is having consistent, robust communication with the consumer and expanding the pool of eligible vehicles, since it not only helps the consumer dispose of their end-of-life vehicle responsibly and sustainably, but it also provides a valued and consistent source of vehicles for recyclers, which are the lifeblood of their business. Currently, we have a dismiss rate that’s a little too high and by reinvigorating Retire Your Ride and the vehicle supply program, we also have the opportunity for ARC to support provincial recycling associations across the country and help them bolster their memberships going forward.

Wider engagement

I feel that in turn, will lead to changes at ARC, where we are not only a voice for the industry at the federal level, but also provincially, through a wider level of engagement through the entire membership, including the associations representing each province and the individual recyclers that belong to them.

Steve has done a fantastic job in ensuring that ARC has always been a bipartisan organization, and that has given us a great opportunity to engage with different stakeholders, including vehicle OEMs, NGOs, environmental groups and government. A good example of that has been the Canadian Auto Recyclers Environmental Code (CAREC), which has and continues to set the standard for sustainable business practices in recycling end-of-life vehicles and has been a model for not only our industry here in Canada, but others around the world.

Cost-effective insurance

One issue that has been raised by recyclers across the country is cost-effective business insurance. As an industry, we frequently discuss the repair aspect and recycled parts usage for collision centres on any given repair estimate, but business insurance is also a key factor. Across the country, in different provinces, we are seeing utilization rates of between 3-5% in most cases and those numbers could be better. How we engage with the insurance industry and have those conversations will be key to helping recyclers sell more parts, but to do that, they need to acquire inventory. While there are challenges relating to the cost and attainability of salvage, during the COVID pandemic, insurers and OEMs saw the value in using recycled parts for collision repairs and that’s something we’ll continue to focus on going forward.