Sunriseguide in the News
08/06/09
What are they going to do with all those cars?
As published in the Maine Switch, August, 2009
By Heather Chandler
By Heather Chandler
I love the premise of the Cash for Clunkers program – incentivize consumers to trade in gas guzzling, emissions-spewing cars for fuel efficient alternatives. I’d like to see the minimum mpg for the replacement cars be a little higher, but I do think the program is a good start. What I’m struggling with is the idea of what will become of all of those traded in cars and trucks—somewhere in the area of 250,000 vehicles (and that’s before the $2 billion extension that congress is voting on as this publication goes to press, which would bump that number somewhere around 750,000).
In order to qualify for the Cash for Clunkers program, the dealers must certify that the cars have been crushed or shredded so that they can not be resold, putting them back on the road for someone else to drive and thus nullifying the effect of the program to begin with.
The scrap yards that do the destruction can remove usable parts to sell before the vehicle is crushed, with the exception of the engine and the drive train which must be destroyed. In the best case scenario, the car is stripped with almost everything being reused and leaving just 250,000 engines and drive trains to be disposed of in metal yards or landfills. And our spare parts market gets an influx of used parts. Worst case, we’re destroying 750,000 almost-whole vehicles (if the additional funds are approved) and add a mountain of metal to a land fill somewhere.
What if those shells of an automobile were repurposed to help solve some of our other transportation challenges? Sort of like the refurbished stereo equipment or small appliances you can buy at discount stores. When the full life cycle of vehicle replacement is taken into consideration (meaning all of the raw material inputs, energy use in manufacturing the raw materials and the vehicle, and all of the outputs—chemicals, waste, scrap), it’s hard to imagine that the benefits of reuse do not outweigh the costs to make that happen. And we’d be contributing to our greener economy in the process.
Here are some alternative ideas: Donate them to community colleges and technical schools for students to practice developing alternative energy technologies to replace the gas guzzling engines. Retrofit them with cleaner systems and then expand car share programs in mid size cities (like Portland) across the country or resell them to small business owners to use for business purposes (preferably green businesses).
No one knows for sure what will happen with those traded in cars. But I have to imagine that there is some better use than sending them to the crusher.
In order to qualify for the Cash for Clunkers program, the dealers must certify that the cars have been crushed or shredded so that they can not be resold, putting them back on the road for someone else to drive and thus nullifying the effect of the program to begin with.
The scrap yards that do the destruction can remove usable parts to sell before the vehicle is crushed, with the exception of the engine and the drive train which must be destroyed. In the best case scenario, the car is stripped with almost everything being reused and leaving just 250,000 engines and drive trains to be disposed of in metal yards or landfills. And our spare parts market gets an influx of used parts. Worst case, we’re destroying 750,000 almost-whole vehicles (if the additional funds are approved) and add a mountain of metal to a land fill somewhere.
What if those shells of an automobile were repurposed to help solve some of our other transportation challenges? Sort of like the refurbished stereo equipment or small appliances you can buy at discount stores. When the full life cycle of vehicle replacement is taken into consideration (meaning all of the raw material inputs, energy use in manufacturing the raw materials and the vehicle, and all of the outputs—chemicals, waste, scrap), it’s hard to imagine that the benefits of reuse do not outweigh the costs to make that happen. And we’d be contributing to our greener economy in the process.
Here are some alternative ideas: Donate them to community colleges and technical schools for students to practice developing alternative energy technologies to replace the gas guzzling engines. Retrofit them with cleaner systems and then expand car share programs in mid size cities (like Portland) across the country or resell them to small business owners to use for business purposes (preferably green businesses).
No one knows for sure what will happen with those traded in cars. But I have to imagine that there is some better use than sending them to the crusher.