When you find it necessary to replace a broken or improperly functioning part in your automobile, house, or some other product, you have several options. You could buy brand new parts, or your could purchase refurbished or rebuilt parts from a dealer. There’s one more possibility, however: you could secure your needed used parts from a salvage yard. Here are the top four reasons to scour the salvage yard instead of investing in new or rebuilt parts:

Saving Money

Used parts are considerably less expensive than new or rebuilt parts. Especially when it comes to vehicles, you can find used parts for a mere fraction of the price of a brand new part. You may potentially reduce your expenditures by up to half when you buy used. With the money you save from purchasing a part from a salvage yard, you will have more to invest in other ways. You might detail your automobile, for instance, and give it a shiny new look.

Freeing Up the Landfills

In recent years, there has been growing concern that we are running out of landfill space. While capacity varies from state to state, some states are especially strained. A professional magazine called Biocyle has reported on “The State of Garbage in America.” In that article, Biocycle revealed that some U.S. states, including Rhode Island and Massachusetts, have only twelve years of landfill capacity left. While some used parts may very well be recycled in other ways, unfortunately quite a few of them still manage to find their way into landfills, where they take up precious space and require years to decompose.

Going Green

By purchasing used parts from a salvage yard, you are not only saving landfill space, but you are also engaging in both recycling and a reduction of energy consumption. The manufacture of new parts requires the use of some form of energy that could potential pollute the environment or diminish resources. It also requires the use of new materials, such as metal, which could be put to use in the creation of other needed products instead.

Finding an ideal match for older products

There’s some truth in the old adage that “they don’t make things like they used to.” Indeed, sometimes they don’t even make the things they used to at all. If you have an older vehicle, for instance, you may have difficulty finding a part that is a precise match. When you can’t find a new part that matches the old one you need to replace, the salvage yard is an ideal place to look.

While it’s tempting to do the easy thing and buy a new part, there are many benefits to buying used. You can save money, save landfill space, recycle, reduce resource consumption, and find ideal matches for older parts. So when it’s time to replace a non-functioning part, don’t forget to consider the salvage yard as one possible option.