Fords in Germany: First a can, then a car and finally a can again
Or at least, that headline could be one of the possible (exaggerated) meanings of the certification that the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (German Carmakers Association Federal Motor Transport Authority) has given Ford GmbH for their use of recyclable materials in Ford vehicles. The certification states that the Ford GmbH vehicles are built with recyclable materials and that all processes during the lifespan of the vehicle are considered from an environment-friendly point of view, from manufacturing to the recycling strategy for used cars.
This certification was given one year before the new 2005/64 EU directive becomes mandatory for all European vehicle manufacturers, including the components industry. According to this directive, vehicles may be put on the market only if they are reusable and/or recyclable to a minimum of 85 percent by mass and are reusable and/or recoverable to a minimum of 95 percent by mass. Vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers should be requested to include those aspects at the earliest stages of the development of new vehicles, in order to facilitate the treatment of vehicles at the time when they reach the end of their life.
Ford got special praise by KBA for their software tool to calculate the impact, which includes data from the complete supply-chain of the manufacturing process.
[Source: Ford GmbH, Lex]
Update: corrected infro on Kraftfahr-Bundesamt.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joe 9:04AM (5/23/2007)
Sorry, but Kraftfahr-Bundesamt is quite certainly not the German Carmaker Association. It's a government authority. Their own translation of their name is: Federal Motor Transport Authority.
Source: http://www.kba.de/Stabsstelle/Publikationen/publication.htm
The Association you had in mind as the VDA: Verband der Automobilindustrie. But that is more of a lobby groupd than an authority :-)
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