How much? 3.65 billion tons of scrap in 25 years thanks to car boom
Whenever we calculate things on a global scale, the numbers get unwieldy. I mean, who can really imagine 6+ billion people or just how many gallons of water make up the oceans? A number that might be a little easier to wrap our heads around is this one: 3.65 billion tons of scrap.
That's the amount that the Scotsman is reporting will be created in the next 25 years thanks to the upcoming boom in the automobile market (did I hear you say India and China? Yup. And Russia and Eastern Europe and ...). Peter Woodman writes that "More vehicles will be produced in the next 25 years than in the entire history of the motor industry." This is according to a study from researchers at Oxford Brookes University. Even if all those are zero-emission BEVs that run 1,000 miles on a thimble of sunshine, where will we put three and a half billion tons of crap, I mean scrap? Landfills that are already quite full.
Europe has regulations that will require most (95 percent by 2015) of the materials in new vehicles to be recyclable. Currently, about three quarters is recycled in Europe. In the U.S., the current number is around 84 percent and the goal is 100. Good luck. We're gonna need it.
[Source: Scotsman via EV World]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ug 7:16PM (11/27/2007)
The problem is that people treat cars like fashion items. People should try to run their cars into the ground instead of trading them in all the time.
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cliclcic 8:26AM (11/28/2007)
The first post sounds so happily green, but it's not quite that simple. All cars require maintenance/repair - especially oil-burning, rusty, slowly decaying older cars. I was behind a 94 Cherokee this morning and just loved smelling burning oil.
The energy it takes to create a car is incredible - no question about that - but "running your car into the ground" also takes incredible amounts of energy. Upkeep, repairs, repairs, recalls, duct tape, wife following you.
Freedom is auto ownership and auto ownership is pure expression. I doubt we can minimize either. Instead, live next to work and pour your money into appreciating assets.
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gmporschenut 9:30AM (11/28/2007)
um recycle?
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wmorin 10:52AM (11/28/2007)
Can they not be smelted ( or whatever the process is to make them into molton steel, and re-use the steel, in new cars .. As for the engine blocks, perhaps they could just put them on a rocket, and send it to the sun :) Space junk, here we come.
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