The knacker's yard is the section of an abattoir or an independent rendering facility that handles animal carcasses and parts deemed unfit for human consumption. Here, bones, hides, and offal are broken down through high heat and chemical processes to extract tallow, meat-and-bone meal, and materials for industrial adhesives. In broader plant maintenance, workers use the term to describe the scrap pile for dead equipment.
Heard on the job
That old centrifugal pump is completely seized up, just tag it and send it to the knacker's yard.
Insider tip
In food processing plants, using this term for the equipment scrap pile implies the machinery is entirely beyond repair and only good for parts.
Also heard as
- boneyard