Scrap Metal
The Mayer Parry scrap yard is well known to locals of the area for two reasons. The first is the smell of old car dust which blows around the nearby offices and businesses; the second is that, every so often, there are explosions at the yard, shaking all the nearby buildings in the district. The blasts are reportedly caused by the detonation of petrol left in the fuel tanks of vehicles as they pass through the crushing machines. In fact, one of the jobs of the grabbers we see in the film is to remove the fuel tanks to avoid this happening ...but evidently some of them slip through the net.
There were no explosions when we went filming - but we were almost crushed to death when we stood far too close to a tipping truck. As it offloaded its consignment of crushed cars, one bounced towards us, causing us to seize our camera equipment and scramble back for our lives. If you study the film carefully you will see the shot we were taking: the editor cuts off it at the very point when we were forced to move, of course!
The recycling industry has experienced considerable growth in recent times as environmental issues have gained more prominence in public and political spheres, and metal recycling is now a lucrative business at a time of high world mineral prices. The Mayer Parry scrapyard in west London is still operating, although the company was acquired by European Metal Recycling (EMR) in 2000.
Please enable Javascript on your browser to see video clip
Production Notes
Locations:
Mayer Parry (Recycling) Ltd, Scrubs Lane, West London.