Clunkers won’t be headed to junkyard
By Tillie Fong 
| August 3, 2009 | 5:01 AM
When it comes to materials that can be recycled, most people think of glass, paper, aluminum and some plastics.
But cars? Probably not.
Yet, “the automobile is the most recycled commodity in the world,” said Scott Horne, vice president of governmental affairs and general counsel for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries. “Ninety five percent of a vehicle is recycled, compared with 65 percent for an aluminum can.”
Under the government’s new Car Allowance Rebate System — also known as “Cash for Clunkers” — customers can trade in their old cars for new, fuel-efficient vehicles. The program requires that the old gas guzzlers be scrapped, with the parts stripped and the rest crushed.
Cash for Clunkers has been so popular that the $1 billion set aside for it was tapped out within a week, prompting Congress to scramble to put more money into the program. An estimated 250,000 vehicles have been sold under the program so far.
Lest anyone assume that this will lead to stacks of cars rusting away in junkyards, a CARS provision sets a time limit for scrap dealers to dispose of the vehicles: 180 days after receipt.
Many parts of a car can be recycled. For instance, when a vehicle goes to an automotive recycler, the hazardous fluids are drained and can be reused.
“The motor oil we burn to heat our building,” said Norman Wright, owner of Stadium Auto Parts in Denver. “We drain the gasoline and give it to employees to reuse. The antifreeze we run through a reclaiming process and sell it as antifreeze. The Freon we are allowed to sell to certified installers, and the batteries we send to EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) recyclers.”
Wright said that a vehicle is then stripped for parts; an average car usually will produce 12 to 22 types of parts, such as doors, rear ends, hoods, fenders and tires.
Clunkers’ engines can’t be resold
Automotive recyclers cannot sell the engine of a Cash for Clunkers car. As part of the program, the engines must be disabled with sodium silicate, or liquid glass. This requirement has prompted protest by the Automotive Recyclers Association because engines comprise 30 percent to 35 percent of sales for the group’s members.
“We want to be able to provide good-quality parts for people who can’t afford to buy a new car,” said Michael Wilson, executive vice president for the group, which represents 4,500 auto recycling facilities in the U.S. and 14 other countries. “We save on the energy to make a new part and provide consumers a part that will be inexpensive, which will keep insurance premiums down.”
Wright agrees, saying that the vehicles considered clunkers under CARS are more likely to be used by low-income people and that by removing the engines from the supply stream, it would drive up prices.
“We would be putting a burden on these people to keep their cars running,” he said.
Some scrap dealers also think that there will be adverse environmental impacts from the use of sodium silicate to disable the engines.
In the CARS rules, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notes that ISRI has expressed concern about the substance posing a health hazard to shredder workers and causing metallic corrosion that could pollute storm-water runoff.
The NHTSA says that the amount of sodium silicate used to disable engines in the CARS program is less than the three to four quarts that ISRI assumes will be used. The agency advises that shredder workers use dust respirators to protect themselves from exposure. It also notes that the particular formulation of the liquid glass is “among the least likely to have a severe corrosive effect” and that the environmental effects ISRI fears are not a “realistic possibility.”
Recycling and reusing the materials
If a CARS trade-in vehicle is not stripped for parts because it is so old that there is no demand for them or so damaged that they’re not usable, it will go to a scrap dealer. A disposal facility must file a report within seven days indicating that it has received a vehicle designated for scrapping.
After all the hazardous liquids are removed, the car, including the engine and drive train, must be crushed or shredded within 180 days of receipt.
The NHTSA does allow an exception: The drive train, transmission, drive shaft and rear end don’t need to be crushed if they are removed and sold separately.
Some parts, such as dead batteries, can be broken down into different parts that can be reused. The case is recycled, the acid neutralized, and the lead is recovered to make new batteries, Horne said.
Other parts, such as windshield glass, can’t be reused.
“Most windshields use safety glass, which has a layer of plastic inside, but glass manufacturers can’t use the materials,” Horne said.
A vehicle’s metal — steel, aluminum, copper and zinc — is separated out and sent to mills or smelters, where it is melted down and reused.
“Virtually 100 percent of the metal is recycled,” said Horne, adding that it can take as little as two weeks between the time the metal is taken from a vehicle and reused in something else.
While some of a car’s plastics can be recycled, parts such as seat stuffing and dashboards can’t. This “auto fluff” comprises 13 percent to 18 percent of the vehicle and is and sent to the landfill.
Horne estimates that about 80 percent of a vehicle can be recycled and about a ton of metal can be recovered for reuse from an average car.
“In a good year, we recycle 17 million cars in a year,” he said. “That’s a whole lot of material.
“The alternative to recycling is that we would have stacks of cars on the streets.”
Wright, a past president of the Colorado Automotive Recyclers Association, said he hasn’t yet received any of clunkers from the CARS program.
“I’ve had calls from dealers, who are committed to us,” he said. “Most are working through the paperwork.”
Wright estimates that he may get five to 10 cars a week from the program but said he doesn’t know what kind of positive impacts CARS could have on the environment by taking older cars off the road.
“This is pretty much to stimulate car sales,” he said. “Every other program in the world is based on the year of the car, because older cars don’t have pollution control devices. But this is based on mileage. You can get decent mileage but pollute the air and still qualify.”
Wright said he’s all for pulling polluting cars off the road but said that Cash for Clunkers may not achieve that goal.
“Maybe the cars are not the most (fuel) efficient, but are they polluting?” he said. “Are they environmentally dangerous? I’m not sure.”
antifreeze, auto parts, automotive recycler, cash for clunkers, engines, epa, gas guzzlers, junkyards, motor oil, scrap dealers
