A metal recycling company in Dartmouth is asking the city to rezone its property so it can expand its recycling business to include cars — a first for Nova Scotia if it's approved.

SNF Maritime Metals Inc., located in the Burnside Industrial Park, currently sorts and bales copper, brass, aluminum and steel to be shipped to Montreal and Saint John.

Nathan Rogers, a planning consultant who speaks for SNF, said the company has asked the Halifax Regional Municipality to rezone the site so it can build a depollution centre, capable of removing oil, transmission fuel, mercury and other contaminants from up to 20 cars a day.

If the project is approved, Rogers said it will be the first of its kind in Nova Scotia.

"This vehicle depollution system actually uses a vacuum system to flush out all the pollutants. Transmission fluid, the gas, oil, will all be removed through this depollution system," he told CBC News.

"This entire proposal is about a simple, efficient system to green the automotive recycling industry."

Rogers said because of the relatively small size of the operation, the project does not need provincial approval.

SNF Maritime Metals Inc. has already taken precautions to ensure there are no problems, he said.

"This concrete floor was installed at a cost of $1 million for effective storm water management. They don't want any contaminants flowing off site," said Rogers.

"They would take that existing car, they would break it down. Remove all of the materials, the tires, the batteries, the mercury switches."

Once all the pollutants are removed from the cars, they will be crushed at the Burnside Industrial Park site and sent to Saint John for shredding.

A public meeting on the proposal was held two years ago and a survey of local businesses has just wrapped up.

Planners with the Halifax Regional Municipality are now preparing a report for the Harbour East Community Council and a public hearing will held in the new year.