Saturday, May 05, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
CTV visits Sonshine Auto Parts
There's no question that the public perception of automotive recycling has changed for the better in recent years, due in no small part to the efforts of association members. Positive media exposure has helped tip the scales of public opinion in favour of progressive and environmentally concious automotive recyclers.
Another example hit the airwaves yesterday, when the CTV affiliate in Ottawa visited Sonshine Auto Parts for three remote segments. Denis Desjarding and Don Laniel of Sonshine Auto Parts did a great job in helping to explain and promote the automotive recycling industry. You can check out the segments below!
Another example hit the airwaves yesterday, when the CTV affiliate in Ottawa visited Sonshine Auto Parts for three remote segments. Denis Desjarding and Don Laniel of Sonshine Auto Parts did a great job in helping to explain and promote the automotive recycling industry. You can check out the segments below!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
CAA survey highlights public misconceptions on vehicle recycling
A recent survey shows the majority of the general public agrees there should be regulations in place to dispose of cars safely and properly.
The survey was conducted by Harris/Decima on behalf of the Canadian Automobile Association. CAA conducts polling with its nine member clubs across Canada and with non-members on a number of topics bi-annually. Both members and non-members are surveyed to ensure that numbers are representative of the general public. Over 5,000 people were surveyed regarding undriveable vehicles and vehicle disposal.
“The research was undertaken in an attempt to put numbers to what we already figured was public perception. Most people think there is legislation around vehicle recycling,” said Teresa Di Felice, Director of Government & Community Relations for CAA South Central Ontario (CAA SCO). With 1.8 million members, South Central Ontario is the largest CAA club in Canada. Di Felice advised that CAA uses this data to help with positions on policy making. Di Felice joined with OARA back in July of 2011 to put vehicle recycling on the radar of government.
Steve Fletcher, Executive Director of OARA said, “These results help us show that the issue resonates with the public. In all my years in the industry I have never seen anything like this data. It's always helpful to have data to back up what we have been saying for years."
The survey asked what people do with their cars when they are no longer driveable. The majority either trades it in, or has never disposed of a vehicle before. The minority drops it off at an auto recycling facility or scrap yard.
“We have a pretty strong Autogreen environmental program,” says Di Felice. The Autogreen environmental program is a CAA SCO initiative to help members understand the impact their cars have on the environment and to encourage its members and motorists in general to lessen that impact. However, the public knows very little about end-of-life vehicles and their impact on the environment.
“We wanted to take a cradle to grave approach on vehicle ownership and we used the survey as a tool to ask members what they know,” says Di Felice. “With Autogreen and OARA it makes a lot of sense. There are things people can do to lessen the impact on the environment. People think end of life vehicles are taken care of properly. This survey helped us cement our position on policy regarding vehicle disposal.”
“1 out of 4 drivers in Ontario is a CAA member. And the survey came back with results showing what the general public understands about end of life vehicles. The data ended up validating that there is a gap in what drivers expect happens to their old cars and what actually happens,” says Fletcher.
OARA is leading a coalition working towards a standards-based licensing scheme for the auto recycling industry. Other members include CAA, the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association and the Association of International Auto Manufacturers of Canada. The group has met with senior government officials.
By Amanda Skopec, Collision Repair Magazine
The survey was conducted by Harris/Decima on behalf of the Canadian Automobile Association. CAA conducts polling with its nine member clubs across Canada and with non-members on a number of topics bi-annually. Both members and non-members are surveyed to ensure that numbers are representative of the general public. Over 5,000 people were surveyed regarding undriveable vehicles and vehicle disposal.
“The research was undertaken in an attempt to put numbers to what we already figured was public perception. Most people think there is legislation around vehicle recycling,” said Teresa Di Felice, Director of Government & Community Relations for CAA South Central Ontario (CAA SCO). With 1.8 million members, South Central Ontario is the largest CAA club in Canada. Di Felice advised that CAA uses this data to help with positions on policy making. Di Felice joined with OARA back in July of 2011 to put vehicle recycling on the radar of government.
Steve Fletcher, Executive Director of OARA said, “These results help us show that the issue resonates with the public. In all my years in the industry I have never seen anything like this data. It's always helpful to have data to back up what we have been saying for years."
The survey asked what people do with their cars when they are no longer driveable. The majority either trades it in, or has never disposed of a vehicle before. The minority drops it off at an auto recycling facility or scrap yard.
“We have a pretty strong Autogreen environmental program,” says Di Felice. The Autogreen environmental program is a CAA SCO initiative to help members understand the impact their cars have on the environment and to encourage its members and motorists in general to lessen that impact. However, the public knows very little about end-of-life vehicles and their impact on the environment.
“We wanted to take a cradle to grave approach on vehicle ownership and we used the survey as a tool to ask members what they know,” says Di Felice. “With Autogreen and OARA it makes a lot of sense. There are things people can do to lessen the impact on the environment. People think end of life vehicles are taken care of properly. This survey helped us cement our position on policy regarding vehicle disposal.”
“1 out of 4 drivers in Ontario is a CAA member. And the survey came back with results showing what the general public understands about end of life vehicles. The data ended up validating that there is a gap in what drivers expect happens to their old cars and what actually happens,” says Fletcher.
OARA is leading a coalition working towards a standards-based licensing scheme for the auto recycling industry. Other members include CAA, the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association and the Association of International Auto Manufacturers of Canada. The group has met with senior government officials.
By Amanda Skopec, Collision Repair Magazine
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Strict Environmental Code is the New Gold Standard for the Auto Recyclers of Canada Members
Whether by accident or through years of dutiful service, your vehicle has finally reached the end of the road. Few of us realize that deciding where to take it is a vitally important environmental decision. The truth is, not everyone handles vehicles the way they should and when that happens, the environmental impact can be disastrous. A program called The Canadian Auto Recyclers’ Environmental Code (CAREC) aims to make sure you’re dealing with one of the “good guys”.
Steve Fletcher, Managing Director of ARC, explained the evolution of the program. “This came out of Environment Canada's National Code of Practice for Automotive Recyclers, developed to support the Retire Your Ride scrappage program. It laid out some pretty stringent compliance requirements for a recycling operation to properly process a vehicle. CAREC goes beyond the structure of the original program and has become an invaluable resource for automotive recyclers in the environmentally sound management of end-of-life vehicles.”
The new program has three goals:
• To convey the legal and mandatory requirements before, during, and after the recycling process and promote best management practices within the industry;
• To promote pollution prevention and the vehicle recovery industry to reduce the ecological impact of the automotive sector; and
• To ensure that there is a consistent set of practices that are aligned with federal, provincial, and municipal regulations, as well as with product and industry stewardship programs.
For an auto recycler to be certified to the code, they must pass an independent audit which objectively measures both their facilities and the processes they use against a standardized protocol. ARC has made it a condition of membership for all of its Direct Members to maintain their certification.
So, as a vehicle owner, why should you care whether or not a recycler is certified? Fletcher explains. “Unfortunately, not everybody processes end-of-life vehicles the way ARC members do. There are some operators who buy cars just to crush them and sell them for the value of the metal. They leave toxic fluids and heavy metals to escape into the soil and groundwater. They don’t recycle usable parts and have no regard to the damage they’re doing to the environment. At face value it’s almost impossible for the average vehicle owner to figure out who the responsible recyclers are and who they should avoid at all costs. When they deal with an ARC member, they know that operator has been thoroughly checked out.”
Steve Fletcher, Managing Director of ARC, explained the evolution of the program. “This came out of Environment Canada's National Code of Practice for Automotive Recyclers, developed to support the Retire Your Ride scrappage program. It laid out some pretty stringent compliance requirements for a recycling operation to properly process a vehicle. CAREC goes beyond the structure of the original program and has become an invaluable resource for automotive recyclers in the environmentally sound management of end-of-life vehicles.”
The new program has three goals:
• To convey the legal and mandatory requirements before, during, and after the recycling process and promote best management practices within the industry;
• To promote pollution prevention and the vehicle recovery industry to reduce the ecological impact of the automotive sector; and
• To ensure that there is a consistent set of practices that are aligned with federal, provincial, and municipal regulations, as well as with product and industry stewardship programs.
For an auto recycler to be certified to the code, they must pass an independent audit which objectively measures both their facilities and the processes they use against a standardized protocol. ARC has made it a condition of membership for all of its Direct Members to maintain their certification.
So, as a vehicle owner, why should you care whether or not a recycler is certified? Fletcher explains. “Unfortunately, not everybody processes end-of-life vehicles the way ARC members do. There are some operators who buy cars just to crush them and sell them for the value of the metal. They leave toxic fluids and heavy metals to escape into the soil and groundwater. They don’t recycle usable parts and have no regard to the damage they’re doing to the environment. At face value it’s almost impossible for the average vehicle owner to figure out who the responsible recyclers are and who they should avoid at all costs. When they deal with an ARC member, they know that operator has been thoroughly checked out.”
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Auto Tech: Automobile recycling
We are all excited when a new shiny vehicle appears in our driveway, and many are interested in how cars and trucks are built and perform. It’s a different story when a vehicle is no longer roadworthy, and that old hulk is traded in, sold or hauled away. We really don’t care, as long as it disappears to somewhere, but we should: there were over twelve million new vehicles sold last year in North America. This is down from a record 17 million a few years earlier, but in the long run, these vehicles will serve their useful purpose and have to be disposed of. Unlike in the past, where old vehicles were left to sit and rust, today these vehicles still have value and that is where automobile recyclers come into play.
We used to call them wrecking yards or salvage yards. Now they are referred to as automotive recyclers, and that is an accurate description of what they do. When a vehicle enters their workplace, it is evaluated and major serviceable parts are removed from the vehicle for resale. It may be an engine, transmission or even body parts, depending on the demand of the marketplace for used parts. Think of this as the ultimate in green environmental consciousness: instead of using new materials and the cost of producing and shipping a new part, a good serviceable used part is put back on the road again.
After the good parts are used, the rest of the vehicle still has value. Bodies are crushed, shredded and sorted into different materials. Currently, over 75% of an automobile is easily recyclable, and in Europe and Japan, they are trying to regulate it so 95% can be recycled. Seventy per cent of a modern vehicle’s weight is made up of steel and cast iron, and more than 40 per cent of all new steel in North America comes from this recycled metal. Lighter metals such as aluminum, copper, zinc and magnesium make up a much smaller percentage of a vehicle’s total weight but are still a significant volume. It is much cheaper to recycle aluminum than it is to mine the ore and produce new aluminum. Not only is it environmentally sound, recycling it takes a lot less electrical energy.
Currently, about 24% of the vehicle ends up as automotive shredder residue (ASR), which includes materials such as plastics, adhesives, rubber, glass, dirt and foam. Current automotive direction is to include more plastics in vehicles to reduce weight and increase fuel economy, and auto manufacturers are helping the recycling process by marking plastic parts with the type of material they are made of so they can be sorted easier. Other parts, such as rubber, can be separated out and reused in a different form. For example, Ford is making engine gaskets out of shredded tires for several of its vehicles.
Other materials, such as glues, resins and foams may not be as easily recyclable but they can be used as fuel sources to help power recycling facilities and research is ongoing to determine how to best utilize these and other materials.
Looking at new vehicles, manufacturers are increasingly finding new ways of incorporating recycled materials into their vehicles. Bamboo, a quic- growing grass, is used by several as reinforcement in moulded underbody panels. This reduces the amount of petroleum needed to manufacture plastics. Recently, I saw how Ford’s new Focus Electric car will have seat material manufactured from recycled plastic water bottles. Not only was this a good use of a product often sent to the landfill, the seat material looked great and felt very luxurious. You would never guess it was derived from a plastic bottle!
Other Ford recycling initiatives include valve covers on the Fusion, Escape, Mustang and F150 made of 100 per cent recycled carpet. The Ecolon nylon resin made from the carpets results in a reduction of more than 430,000 gallons of oil used, not to mention the carpet that doesn’t go to the land fill. Another example is the 2012 Focus, which will have carpet and sound deadening material manufactured from used clothing.
These examples are from one manufacturer. The others are using recycled materials too, to both lower production costs and protect our environment. There is a social consciousness in the automotive industry, and recycling is one part of it.
By Jim Kerr
Autos.ca
We used to call them wrecking yards or salvage yards. Now they are referred to as automotive recyclers, and that is an accurate description of what they do. When a vehicle enters their workplace, it is evaluated and major serviceable parts are removed from the vehicle for resale. It may be an engine, transmission or even body parts, depending on the demand of the marketplace for used parts. Think of this as the ultimate in green environmental consciousness: instead of using new materials and the cost of producing and shipping a new part, a good serviceable used part is put back on the road again.
After the good parts are used, the rest of the vehicle still has value. Bodies are crushed, shredded and sorted into different materials. Currently, over 75% of an automobile is easily recyclable, and in Europe and Japan, they are trying to regulate it so 95% can be recycled. Seventy per cent of a modern vehicle’s weight is made up of steel and cast iron, and more than 40 per cent of all new steel in North America comes from this recycled metal. Lighter metals such as aluminum, copper, zinc and magnesium make up a much smaller percentage of a vehicle’s total weight but are still a significant volume. It is much cheaper to recycle aluminum than it is to mine the ore and produce new aluminum. Not only is it environmentally sound, recycling it takes a lot less electrical energy.
Currently, about 24% of the vehicle ends up as automotive shredder residue (ASR), which includes materials such as plastics, adhesives, rubber, glass, dirt and foam. Current automotive direction is to include more plastics in vehicles to reduce weight and increase fuel economy, and auto manufacturers are helping the recycling process by marking plastic parts with the type of material they are made of so they can be sorted easier. Other parts, such as rubber, can be separated out and reused in a different form. For example, Ford is making engine gaskets out of shredded tires for several of its vehicles.
Other materials, such as glues, resins and foams may not be as easily recyclable but they can be used as fuel sources to help power recycling facilities and research is ongoing to determine how to best utilize these and other materials.
Looking at new vehicles, manufacturers are increasingly finding new ways of incorporating recycled materials into their vehicles. Bamboo, a quic- growing grass, is used by several as reinforcement in moulded underbody panels. This reduces the amount of petroleum needed to manufacture plastics. Recently, I saw how Ford’s new Focus Electric car will have seat material manufactured from recycled plastic water bottles. Not only was this a good use of a product often sent to the landfill, the seat material looked great and felt very luxurious. You would never guess it was derived from a plastic bottle!
Other Ford recycling initiatives include valve covers on the Fusion, Escape, Mustang and F150 made of 100 per cent recycled carpet. The Ecolon nylon resin made from the carpets results in a reduction of more than 430,000 gallons of oil used, not to mention the carpet that doesn’t go to the land fill. Another example is the 2012 Focus, which will have carpet and sound deadening material manufactured from used clothing.
These examples are from one manufacturer. The others are using recycled materials too, to both lower production costs and protect our environment. There is a social consciousness in the automotive industry, and recycling is one part of it.
By Jim Kerr
Autos.ca
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