Junk car removal used to be so simple. You'd open the yellow pages, go to the cars section, and look for a local junk yard, tow truck company, or auto salvage business.

Today, car donation charities and the Internet have combined to produce a relatively new marketing term that is an umbrella for a bunch of different industries; Junk Car Removal.

It's not strictly a new term, it's just been mainstreamed by millions of radio, Internet, TV, and print ads for charities offering free junk car removal. Just looking at the search results from the major search engines would make you think that junk yards, tow truck companies, and scrap metal dealers would be things of the past.

The reality is that the search results you'll get online for junk car removal will most likely mean that your old car will end up at the same places as they would when the Yellow Pages were king.

Car donation charities that offer free junk car removal most often partner with local towing, junk yard, and salvage businesses to come pick up your car.

There is no problem with junk car removal becoming the accepted marketing term for the industry. The problem is that too many junk cars are sent to the same environmentally irresponsible businesses that have yet to embrace any type of Green standard.

Cars that sit leaking oil, mercury, and dozens of other harmful toxins on junk yard lots continue to threaten the groundwater. Too many junk cars are simply scrapped for steel, with the rest of the car ending up in our rapidly expanding landfills.

If you're looking for junk car removal, please take the time to ensure that you find one of the few removal companies that cares for the environment. Look for junk car buyers who seek to fix up cars for people who need cheap transportation. Look for companies that recycle more than just the steel. Ask how they dispose of noxious fluids and heavy metals that can pollute.

Just because “junk car removal” has replaced “junk yards” doesn't mean that the junk car business has been brought into the 21st Century.