Anyone who has ever bid farewell to a car may have wondered what happens once it has been towed away. Cars can survive can be made to survive for many years. But even the oldest of old bangers will one day have to give up the gas and opt for a trip to car heaven.

Others will be taken in the prime of life by an unfortunate driver error, to be written off without chance of resuscitation.

A stay in purgatory at the expense of an insurance company can put off the day of reckoning for a while, but written-off vehicles cannot escape their final destination forever.

The unwanted car's first appointment is with a company like Cheney Manor-based Highworth Breakers, where the vehicle is dismantled.

Yard manager Jon Hadgkiss said the firm dealt with up to 10 cars a day.

He said: "We pick up the car and bring it to our yard, where we unload it off the truck and use power tools to strip off the bits we can keep."

What can be salvaged will vary with the condition of the car.

Parts Mr Hadgkiss and his team will look to save include the driveshaft, starter motor, alternator, lights, switches, the engine and gearbox. They will later be sold on to local garages.

The car is then "depolluted," with its oil and brake fluid removed and stored for disposal. This requirement was brought in late last year by the Environment Agency.

The remainder of the car is then loaded back on to a lorry and taken to a metal recycling facility, such as European Metal Recycling.

Based in Gipsy Lane in Stratton St Margaret, the recycling plant disassembles the cars before crushing them into small cubes.

These cubes are then sent off to a shredder in a plant in London or Birmingham, where they are reduced to golf ball-sized pieces.

Here, the metallic elements are separated from the non-metallic.

The non-metallic make aggregate or landfill, while the metallic are sent to a steel works for melting.

Simon Woods, the general manager of EMR, said two million cars were scrapped in the UK each year each weighing a tonne.

Up to 75 per cent of each car is eventually re-used or recycled.

Some of the material presumably finds itself rolling off the assembly line as a brand new vehicle, as the circle of life continues.

Andy Tate