Imagine going through a buffet line but instead of being armed with a knife and fork, you have a screw driver, wrench and some other trusty tools. In this instance, it won’t be your taste buds rejoicing but rather your vehicle and your pocketbook.  Welcome to the buffet line at Pull-A-Part (PAP), a discounted used auto parts superstore where customers bring their own tools and take parts off the cars themselves.

Founded in 1997, Atlanta-based Pull-A-Part is the first and best step in the auto recycling process. They purchase vehicles that would normally be abandoned. Each of PAP’s 16 facilities has about 2,000 cars. No vehicle stays at a facility longer than 60 to 90 days and each location will recycle between 10,000 and 12,000 cars per year. Upon purchasing the cars, PAP removes the fluids, batteries and mercury switches, which are then recycled. Over 50,000 gallons of automotive fluid are recycled each year. Also interesting to note is that PAP serves as a leader in the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Removal Program (NVMSRP). PAP has been responsible for removing over one million switches across the 50 states. Each of these switches contains ap-proximately one gram of mercury, which, if not recovered and recycled, would be emitted into the air when the scrap is melted. One gram of mercury is enough to contaminate 132,000 gallons of water. Pull-A-Part has now recovered enough switches to prevent over 115 pounds of mercury from entering the environment. So big was this milestone that Stephen Johnson, administrator for the EPA, removed the one millionth switch himself.

Not only is the company a trendsetter in the discounted auto parts business, but many of the PAP sites are noteworthy because they were built on brownfields. Seven of the 16 locations are former brownfields. PAP’s first location was a former junk yard in the Atlanta area. The PAP site in Cleveland was the old LTV Steel Mill cleaned up and developed with the help of Hemisphere Development LLC. PAP is probably one of the best options for large brownfield sites. There are very few penetrations into the ground, which is good for a capped site. Some of the brownfields PAP has cleaned up and converted have very little contamination.

Pull-A-Part has garnered many awards for its environmental contributions. In 2006, the State of Georgia recognized PAP with its “Keep Georgia Beautiful” Waste Reduction Award. The company beat out other prestigious organizations like Nissan and Saturn. Georgia also made PAP a Gold-level member of the Partnership for Sustainable Georgia program, an honor only about ten companies hold in the entire state.

PAP’s efforts have also been noticed nationally. It is the only company in the recycling industry to be accepted into the U.S. EPA’s Performance Track Program, which exemplifies the highest level of environmental partnership between the government agency and an organization/business. Only 540 organizations are part of this program. PAP is fortunate to have two of its oldest facilities participate in this program.  

As the company continues to expand, it will eventually grow to 23 locations. According to Vice President Steve Levetan, “PAP is not trying to be all things to all people. We know our business and we execute on that plan effectively.”