If there are any talk radio or Nation Public Radio fans out there you may have heard this earlier this week.
There is a group who wants to pass legislation for SUV vouchers. This program would allow SUV owners to turn in there vehicles to br crushed and get cash towards buying more fuel efficiant cars. OK, you say this sounds like it could work, BUT... They want GM, Ford, Daimler-Chrysler to foot the bill. Like this would ever happen. In abstract this sounds like a good idea. There are many flaws. To simply crush a good SUV without salvage is not only wastefull, but an environmental and economical nightmare. There are tons of hazardous materials generated from crushing that most non-car people never consider. Mercury switches (and there are many) ooze from the metal block of former car. Plastics, interior foam and insulation gives of toxic fumes when melted down.
I spent 14 years in the environmental sector and have seen all kinds of things.
Giant car shredding machines with recovery pits under them full of chemicals and metals which could contaminate groundwater.
On the other hand there are millions of trucks and vehicles which will need affordable used replacement parts to keep them going. If you crush everything in site, there will be no spare parts left. Small companies with delivery trucks cant afford to replace their trucks every few years.
I now work for the local goverment (city engineeering) and we actually have a
truck and SUV shortage. I had to drive an old Chevy Corsica loaded with field equipment off road. Not an intended purpose for a front wheel drive car. We need a SUV donation to municipal government program. Our city is too broke to buy more trucks.
Ben

Let's remember when all those SUV's got on our roads - Under the 8 years of Clinton-gore. After we elect Kerry, please don't go to sleep like the left did under Clinton. And as for NAFTA we're just beginning to see the environmental and social/economic impacts - W is a moron but he didn't do that.

Don't give me that BS that it's the Democrats that let this happen. The Ford Exploder, which set the standard for a passenger vehicle with none of the safety that a passenger car required, came out in 1990 - Bush senior's term. And to go one step further, a lot the relaxiations came into place from the Reagan/Bush administration - dropping the 5 mph with no damage bumper requirements to a 2.5 mph with damage as long as it's not to "safety equipment", not pursuing the big three with nice hefty fines in 1986-1989 for not meeting CAFE, amongst some.

Blame the big three special interest and those caving into their so called studies.

FWIW, during the Clinton Admininstration, there was a push for an increase of the light truck CAFE standards. It got shot down.

So don't go spewing political lies. If you must, do it in Opinions.

-- Kane
--
Blossom II -'91 745Ti/M46 ... Bubbles -'74 144GL/BW35 ... Buttercup -'86 245GL/AW70
The Wayback Machine -'64 P220/M40 ... The ParaBox -'90 745GL/AW70

Another thought on all that, though SUVs and some older cars may not be terribly fuel efficient or have the best emmissions, when you consider everything that goes into making a new car, all those emmisions, fuel costs, materiel costs, etc, it may actually be even worse than continuing to drive the less efficient car. I read somewhere that all the fuel that does into producing the batteries for the hybrid cars cancels out the fuel that is saved by the car itself. Just something else to think about...(the lesson is, drive that volvo forever!)

On another note, I know of one yard that does remove all of the gasoline from the tanks as soon as the cars come in. The guy working there told me he hasn't had to buy gas in several years. Perks, I guess. They are pretty good about dismantling their cars and placing the parts into old semi trailers. This yard does not have any foreign cars though. Tire recycling programs are a hit and miss thing here. Some yards have a $10 to $15 used tire rack just to get rid of them. Once a year there is a free tire day if you don't mind digging through tires for a matching set. They have to pay to dispose of them and that gets expensive. One tire facility came to us for remediation plan. This place was an accident waiting to happen. They had no fire lanes between the 40 foot high mountains of tires and did end up with a pretty bad fire back in 1999. The clean up cost was almost a million.
Ben

I doubt they would just crush the car before pulling out metals, plastics, hazardous materials, etc. And hopefully the car companies would donate the SUVs before they trashed them, they should know there are uses for SUV's other than going to the mall.

just saw my local junk yard crushing cars. tires taken off but, radiator and gas tanks ruptured by forklift and then flattened & piled up on a flatbed like cookies on a plate.

luckily, this yarder keeps all his volvos.

i was told scrap iron is up in cost--guess it's the chinese buying up the stuff.

regards,
byron golden
86 245
92 245

Then you haven't watched the junkyard crushers in action.
Remove the wheels, or at least any wheels with tires, and the gas tanks, and crush whatever's left. Fluids, plastics, interiors, glass, wiring, it's all in there.
Most yards now have the problem of getting rid of mountains of tires, and the old gas though many fuel their "yard cars" with it. Once the tanks are empty they are crushed up separately as scrap steel.

I object to any "scrapper" laws as it causes good parts to be destroyed, and older cars to come off the road. It's also usually focused on the western states, where the remaining good body shells still live. East coast and northern cars are sort of self-limiting: by the time they get old enough to tpyically pollute a lot, they're usually rusting out and don't stay on the road much longer.
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 234K, '82 245T/M46-182K, '89 244DL/AW70- 212K Not too distant past: 86 244DL 215K, 87 244DL 239K, 88 744GLE 233K, 88 244GL 147K, 91 244 183K

There are two in my area rgar take the cars down to bare body before crushing. They collect the fluids and sell the parts.