Two US automotive recycling trade bodies have launched CARE — Certified Automotive Recycler of Excellence — a joint certification program aimed at standardising practice across the country's end-of-life vehicle dismantling facilities.

The Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) and URG announced the program this week through trade publication Auto Recycling World, framing CARE as the first industry-recognised national credential for auto recyclers in the United States.

What does CARE actually certify?

The program's full name points to its scope: recyclers of excellence. In practice, that covers the yard operators that pull end-of-life vehicles out of the insurance write-off stream, harvest serviceable parts, and handle regulated materials — fluids, batteries, mercury switches, refrigerants — before crushing the remaining hulks.

CARE gives those operators one documented standard to point to when they deal with insurers, regulators, parts buyers, and the salvage supply chain. Until now, US auto recyclers have worked under a mix of state environmental permits, local zoning rules, and private audit schemes. A recycler certified in Texas might carry no standing in Vermont. The patchwork has long frustrated compliant operators who say lower-tier yards undercut them on price.

The US auto recycling sector has long been one of the more fragmented corners of the country's waste and materials economy. A single national label tied to two trade groups is, by that measure, a structural shift.

Who is behind the launch?

ARA is the long-established US trade body representing automotive recyclers, dismantlers, and the parts suppliers that resell harvested components. ARA's involvement gives the credential direct reach into the yard-level membership that already handles the bulk of US end-of-life vehicle processing.

URG is the second organisation putting its name on the certification. Its involvement broadens that reach to the parts and salvage distribution network that those yards feed. Both groups are publishing CARE as a joint initiative, which gives the credential standing with both yard operators and the wider salvage parts network.

For an industry that has spent years pushing for consistent national standards, a jointly-backed label is a meaningful step — and a hint that the two groups have aligned on what "excellence" looks like in a modern dismantling yard.

Two trade groups, one credential, one rulebook.

What the launch changes on the ground

The rollout gives the US auto recycling sector its first widely-traded national benchmark. For an insurer processing a total loss, or a state environmental agency auditing a fluid spill, CARE offers a short-cut to verified operational standard. Insurers writing off hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year now have a single badge to look for.

The certification also raises the floor for new entrants. A yard that holds CARE signals to insurers — and increasingly to OEMs running parts recovery and circularity programs — that it meets a baseline the wider industry has signed off on. That matters in a sector where reputation often runs on handshake.

The label changes what an inspector sees before the inspector opens the gate.

What to watch next

The launch announcement does not yet spell out certification criteria, audit cadence, fee structure, or the timetable for the first certified facilities. Those four items will decide whether CARE becomes the de facto national standard or sits as one more badge alongside existing state-level schemes.

The next milestone to track: ARA and URG's publication of the CARE operating manual, followed by the first published list of certified yards. Until those land, the credential is a label without a yard on the door.