As Shannon took his international guests on tours through his operation they snapped pictures with cameras and phones, most particularly of his oil and antifreeze reclamation process and his geothermal heat/cooling system.
“As you no doubt know from your own experiences, dealing with anti-freeze as you dismantle could be a very messy procedure,” Nordstrom said. “Now all those fluids get drained and separated safely and efficiently. We reacclimate the oil and burn it in our broiler to heat our shipping & receiving area. We reacclimate the anti-freeze, rebottle it and sell it.”
Throughout the tour, these other Auto Recycling professionals asked Nordstrom detailed questions and shared experiences from their own shops and operations.
Adam Malysko is the Director of Ambit Recycling Systems and the President of Stowarzyzenie Forum Recycling in Warszawa (Warsaw), Poland. Mirak translated for Adam, who spoke little English.
“My operation in Poland is much larger than this, but this is an operation that is being done well,” Adam said. “Building relationships with other Automotive Recyclers is extremely valuable, and benefits us all, so that we can gain a better understanding of what best practices are and should be, and share them with each other.”
When asked what he thought the future of cars and auto-recycling might be with the dawn of electric cars and self-driving cars on the horizon, Malyszko had this to say.
“The whole world is talking about the electric car now,” he said. “We’re seeing much more electric vehicles on the road as well as the hybrid car. It has the potential for all of us to make a cleaner environment. Much better than the diesel engine. The problem is that the tool sets you need to work on them are completely different than conventional vehicles, so all of us in the industry need to acquire and learn how to use these new tools. Also, the power storage systems needed to make them run are not as efficient as they need to be yet, but that’s coming.”
Pictured from the left are Art, Marie and Shannon Nordstrom; Mirak Malyszko of Poland, Andy Letham of the United Kingdom, Adam Malysko the director of AMBIT Recycling Systems in Warsaw, Vince Eridan director of Member Relations for the Automotive Recyclers Association, Hamish Peter and John Irvine of Scotland, Rob Austin and Terry Charlton of England.
