from "Yahoo"
The program's first mistake seems to have been its focus on car shredding, instead of car recycling. With 690,000 vehicles traded in, that's a pretty big mistake.
According to the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA), automobiles are almost completely recyclable, down to their engine oil and brake fluid. But many of the “Cash for Clunkers” cars were never sent to recycling facilities. The agency reports that the cars’ engines were instead destroyed by federal mandate, in order to prevent dealers from illicitly reselling the vehicles later.
The remaining parts of each car could then be put up for auction, but program guidelines also required that after 180 days, no matter how much of the car was left, the parts woud be sent to a junkyard and shredded.
MORE: The Sweet Smell of Sugar Cane Derived from Fuel
Shredding vehicles results in its own environmental nightmare. For each ton of metal produced by a shredding facility, roughly 500 pounds of “shredding residue” is also produced, which includes polyurethane foams, metal oxides, glass and dirt. All totaled, about 4.5 million tons of that residue is already produced on average every year. Where does it go? Right into a landfill.
E Magazine states recycling just the plastic and metal alone from the CARS scraps would have saved 24 million barrels of oil. While some of the “Clunkers” were truly old, many of the almost 700,000 cars were still in perfectly good condition. In fact, many that qualified for the program were relatively “young,” with fuel efficiencies that rivaled newer cars.
Whoops—'Cash for Clunkers' Actually Hurt the Environment
Takepart.com – Thu, Jan 3, 2013
Back in 2009, President Obama’s “Cash for Clunkers”
program was supposed to be a boon for the environment and the economy.
During a limited time, consumers could trade in an old gas-guzzling used
car for up to $4,500 cash back towards the purchase of a fuel-efficient
new car. It seemed like a win for everyone: the environment, the gasping auto industry and cash-strapped consumers.
Though almost a million people
poured into car dealerships eager to exchange their old jalopies for
something shiny and new, recent reports indicate the entire program may
have actually hurt the environment far more than it helped.
According to E Magazine,
the “Clunkers” program, which is officially known as the Car Allowance
Rebates System (CARS), produced tons of unnecessary waste while doing
little to curb greenhouse gas emissions.The program's first mistake seems to have been its focus on car shredding, instead of car recycling. With 690,000 vehicles traded in, that's a pretty big mistake.
According to the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA), automobiles are almost completely recyclable, down to their engine oil and brake fluid. But many of the “Cash for Clunkers” cars were never sent to recycling facilities. The agency reports that the cars’ engines were instead destroyed by federal mandate, in order to prevent dealers from illicitly reselling the vehicles later.
The remaining parts of each car could then be put up for auction, but program guidelines also required that after 180 days, no matter how much of the car was left, the parts woud be sent to a junkyard and shredded.
MORE: The Sweet Smell of Sugar Cane Derived from Fuel
Shredding vehicles results in its own environmental nightmare. For each ton of metal produced by a shredding facility, roughly 500 pounds of “shredding residue” is also produced, which includes polyurethane foams, metal oxides, glass and dirt. All totaled, about 4.5 million tons of that residue is already produced on average every year. Where does it go? Right into a landfill.
E Magazine states recycling just the plastic and metal alone from the CARS scraps would have saved 24 million barrels of oil. While some of the “Clunkers” were truly old, many of the almost 700,000 cars were still in perfectly good condition. In fact, many that qualified for the program were relatively “young,” with fuel efficiencies that rivaled newer cars.
And though the point was to get less fuel efficient cars
off the roads, with only 690,000 traded in, and over 250 million
registered in the U.S., the difference in pollutant levels seems pretty
negligible.
But all that vehicular
destruction did more than create unnecessary waste for the environment.
It also had some far-reaching economic effects.
According to a recent TriCities op-ed from Mike Smith of Ralph Smith Motors
in Virginia, CARS created a dearth of used cars, artificially driving
up prices. For those who needed an affordable car, but didn’t qualify
for the program, this increase in price meant affordable transportation
was well out of reach. It also meant used-car dealers, most of whom are
independently owned, small-business owners, had little to no stock.
According to Smith, 122 Virginia dealers chose not to renew their
licenses after that year.
TakePart spoke to Daniel Gray,
bestselling tech author and fuel-efficiency expert about the
environmental impact of the auto industry. He says that the government
is making strides. Chief among them is the announcement of CAFE MPG standards this year, new regulations introduced by the current administration that mandate a minimum fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. That’s double the minimum requirement as of right now.
And in the interim, Gray
encourages consumers to make informed decisions. “The biggest focus
going forward should be to encourage folks to purchase the most
fuel-efficient vehicle that fits their needs. We should also look into
retrofitting older cars with the latest fuel-saving technology and
encourage carbon-neutral, or possibly negative, renewable biofuels.”
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