by Andy Latham
http://www.a-r-a.org/article.asp?paper=102&cat=155&article=752
Technical advances in motor vehicles are making repairs much harder and raising costs. This has the potential to increase instances of fraud and sub-standard repair -- issues that can seriously harm the reputation of the auto recycling industry. How can the global auto recycling industry, whilst keeping costs as low as possible, continue to improve standards, consumer protection, and eradicate fraud?
The recycling of motor vehicles is not new. The environmental benefits of the industry has been recognized over many years and in some countries since the introduction of the horseless carriage in the late 1800s. The vast majority of these recycling businesses have been set up and run to high standards, but as is the case with all business, there are a few individuals who are slightly less than honest in their business dealings. Many countries recognize this and have steps in place to limit the potential for fraudulent activity, but these actions fail to recognize the global nature of motor salvage and the effect of vehicles moving across international borders.
Over the last 10 years the salvage marketplace has changed greatly from being an industry that operated very locally. Motor salvage has now gone global, generating cash in the billions annually. The flow of motor salvage around the world has significantly increased, following the opening up of the European Union, the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and more importantly, the move into the Internet age.
You can now buy motor salvage 24/7 from online auctions around the world, vehicle parts are available on a mail order basis with 24-hour delivery, and cheap labor and skills are now being utilized from Africa to India to Eastern Europe.
Many of the salvage codes and guidelines written over the past 15 years have focused on the unique circumstances in each individual country. Regrettably most of these codes fail to reflect the global nature of motor salvage, so what could be outlawed in one country is allowed in another, and the motor salvage industry moves motor salvage across borders to the best advantage of their businesses.
As an example, motor vehicle salvage is allowed to travel from Western Europe to former Soviet states like Lithuania, Poland, etc. When these vehicles get there, they can be used to repair other vehicles or could get repaired themselves. The United Kingdom (UK) sourced right-hand-drive (RHD) vehicles are sometimes repaired and brought back to the UK, but many will be repaired, changed to left-hand-drive (LHD), registered locally, and then sold on, for example, to Russia, one of the biggest markets.
The Association of British Insurers Code of Practice for Motor Salvage in the UK requests that the vehicle documentation for some salvage is destroyed. On export the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in Swansea will issue an export document that can be used to register a vehicle in another country.
As re-registration requires original paperwork from the country of origin, these documents are important – or are they? When a vehicle is presented to a registration office in Eastern Europe, do they check with the registration agency in the donor country that the paperwork they have received is genuine? DVLA in Swansea has reported the theft of blank V5 vehicle logbooks over the past few years. Where has this paperwork gone and are these logbooks feeding a black market of repaired vehicles?
Many European countries also fail to control motor salvage vehicle documentation, and in some cases large sums of money are believed to be changing hands for extensively damaged vehicles that come with ownership documents. This only fuels the theft and cloning of same model and specification vehicles.
Insurance engineers completing vehicle damage assessments must apply good engineering practice and safety considerations when deciding whether a vehicle is to be sold for repair, totally destroyed, or broken for parts. All repair assessments should accurately reflect normal methods and costs that would be incurred for policyholder repair with rates reflecting usual market terms.
If insurance engineers make the decision to designate the vehicle as motor salvage, then they need to look carefully at the following statement:
“Could, or should, the vehicle be repaired?”
Perhaps the easiest way to look at this question is to divide “could” and “should.”
“Could” the vehicle be safely and economically repaired in the motor salvage marketplace, using accepted industry standards? Manufacturers’ or the UK Motor Insurance Repair and Research Centre (otherwise known as Thatcham) repair methods must always be used, but independent or second-hand parts and reduced labor rates may be applied.
“Should” the vehicle be repaired? This is a more subjective question and factors that the engineers should include considering:
• The need to remove the vehicle from a possible theft chain, e.g.: a stripped-out vehicle, requiring unobtainable or expensive replacement parts. If such a vehicle is declared repairable, then a similar vehicle may be stolen and broken for parts.
• No vehicle should ever be categorized as repairable on the basis that second-hand shells/frames will be used. In those cases the category should always be spare parts only.
• Vehicles with water damage can present a difficult decision. Engineers first need to determine the type of water present and then categorize accordingly.
• Salt Water damage will generally result in spare parts only categorization due to the corrosive nature of the water. Vehicles flooded to a level high enough to contaminate the airbags should also be considered as spare parts only. Lower level flooded vehicles could be treated as repairable salvage, and these vehicles could be repaired and placed back into use.
• Some vehicles, especially higher value ones, may be considered technically economical to repair, but often they are so severely damaged that they should be categorized as parts only.
What issues are currently faced?
• Guidelines that fail to reflect the global reach of the motor salvage marketplace
• Lack of control over vehicle documentation
• Information not exchanged between countries
• Different standards on recycled parts
• Standards of repair
Vehicle design and the increased use of recyclable materials in production is becoming additionally important and is included in current European Union End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) legislation.
It is forecast that more vehicles will be produced and sold in the next 20 years than in the entire previous history of the motor industry, ultimately leading to more end-of-life vehicles. The statistics are compelling: 1 billion vehicles scrapped worldwide since 1960; it is predicted that this figure will be almost doubled by 2030 (figures from Drivenet).
It’s not only the bodywork, glass, and trim that needs to be considered. When you add aftermarket sales, over 9 billion batteries will be disposed of between now and 2030 – along with 181 billion litres of oil, 54 billion tires, and 13 billion airbag modules and seat belt pretensioners.
What can the motor salvage industry do?
Option 1: Do nothing, watch the unlicensed and illegal operations take all the vehicles that they can, repair them cheaply and to a poor standard, and not take any responsibility for consumer protection, whilst all the time bringing the salvage industry into disrepute and harming the public perception of this industry.
Option 2: Continue to work to current national standards without reference to other countries or salvage associations. This would have impact locally but vehicles that are subject to cross border trading are left out.
Option 3: Continue to work locally to raise standards as much as possible, but also work globally to get more countries working towards similar standards, the America’s, the European Union, etc.
To accomplish this, the motor salvage industry needs to produce a set of guidelines, or standards, that the global salvage industry can work towards that give consumers the confidence to purchase recycled parts or to drive a vehicle repaired using recycled parts.
The proposed motor salvage code of practice takes some of the best parts of all current standards and codes of practice, refined and updated, to allow for cross-border trading, and designed to be flexible enough to update when new technology or further research and testing show that changes need to be made.
The code sets minimum standards but allows for tougher local standards where applicable. For example, allowing the re-use of non-deployed airbags in the United States under the strict rules and protocols in place would not be allowed in the UK because the Code of Practice specifically excludes this.
The code is designed to support all legitimate motor salvage and auto recycling operations, those that care about their individual business, their staff, their customers, the environment, and the need to have a sustainable business plan. This is a code that needs to be supported by all national and international motor salvage and auto recycling associations.
Inaction could result in legislation similar to legislation in New South Wales, Australia, which prevents all total loss vehicles being re-registered.
An effective code of practice could avoid legislation as governments can see the industry is taking responsibility for their actions, ensuring:
• more quality recycled parts used to repair vehicles
• increased consumer safety
• more repair opportunities
• reduction of repair costs
• reduction in CO2 as a direct result of less new parts being used
• reduction of fraud
• increased numbers of legitimate operators
• increased professionalism and customer perception of the motor salvage industry
At the same time, enhanced enforcement by local environmental agencies is needed to ensure that all licensed operators are working to a consistently high standard. Businesses that fail to achieve these standards should be given the support they require to improve; those that do not have licenses must either receive appropriate licenses or face closure.
Legislators need to be able to close down those operations that are unlicensed, unsafe, and unlawful; and courts must be allowed to set down substantial fines and sentences that send the message loud and clear that unlawful and unethical activity will not be tolerated in this industry.
All national and international motor salvage and auto recycling associations need to use their considerable experience and influence by continuing to set the highest industry standards of vehicle and parts handling, standards that reduce fraud, standards that increase consumer protection, and standards that increase the professionalism and the profits of this industry.
All representatives of the Motor Salvage Industry need to look carefully at their actions and ensure that they are working to the highest professional and ethical standards at all times. This can only add benefit to the industry we love. As consumers see standards being raised, they will become more comfortable purchasing repaired vehicles and recycled parts.
Andy Latham is the Reputation Manager for Bluecycle, one of the UK’s leading online car salvage auction sites and online auction technology specialists. They have been trading for over 10 years and specialize in car salvage, end of fleet, motorcycle, plant, and equipment and commercial salvage, selling hundreds of vehicles each week to customers throughout the UK and Europe.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Why regulated standards are needed for end-of-life vehicles
Approximately 1.5 million passenger vehicles either reach the end of their useful lives or are damaged in accidents beyond repair (and subsequently “retired”) each year in Canada.
Even so, these end-of-life vehicles (ELV) have considerable economic value. In particular, the metal associated with vehicle construction ensures that most ELVs are eventually recycled as scrap metal. While there are no comprehensive sources of data related to the percentage of automobiles in Canada that are recovered and processed, all indications are that more than 90% of ELVs are processed to various degrees.
While the base metal recycling rate for automobiles is relatively high, not all automobiles are processed properly before being recycled for the metal content. Vehicles are generally compressed and shredded before they are shipped to bulk metal recyclers – often without the substances of concern being removed beforehand.
This practice is prevalent because for certain types of ELV processors, it’s more profitable to avoid the additional cost of removing harmful substances. In these cases fluids are often absorbed into vehicle shredder residue while other toxic substances – including mercury, lead and ozone-depleting gasses – are released into the environment.
A number of automotive recyclers that are primarily in the ELV processing sector focus on vehicle dismantling and “de-pollution” services. Many of these ELV processors are members of the Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC). ARC members provide ELV management to the federal government’s Retire Your Ride vehicle scrappage incentive program, which requires adherence to the National Code of Practice for Automotive Recyclers Participating in the National Vehicle Scrappage Program.
The National Code is implemented in Ontario as the Certified Auto Recycler (O-CAR) program. In Ontario, every vehicle recycled by a member of the Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association (OARA is the provincial affiliate of ARC) goes through a methodical process to maximize reclamation of environmentally-sensitive materials in order to minimize the environmental impact. Batteries – as well as substances of concern such as mercury switches, motor oils, windshield washer fluid, coolants, brake fluids, gasoline, and refrigerants – are all removed and properly managed prior to forwarding or processing the remaining vehicular hulk for metal recycling.
While recycling ELV materials such as aluminum and steel contributes to lower greenhouse gas emissions and pollution (in comparison to making such metals from virgin materials), reuse of vehicle parts generates significant additional environmental benefits through reduced pollution and material requirements associated with the manufacture of new parts.
Reusing parts also has economic benefits in terms of providing vehicle owners with a cost-effective source of replacement parts. Reuse of parts also providers the aftermarket repair and custom sector with a similar source of parts while lowering insurance claim costs as body shops and repair shops are able to access refurbished parts recovered from ELV vehicles.
Recognizing that Retire Your Ride is set to expire in March, OARA has been working with the Ontario government to transform O-CAR from a voluntary processing standard to a regulated environmental standard. If implemented, the standard will be administered by an oversight body that will ensure ELV processors operate consistently to that standard. Concurrently, OARA is collaborating with environmental groups and a number of leading auto manufacturers that have recognized the need to ensure ELVs are properly processed at the end of their operating lives.
With about three of every four cars in Canada not being managed to any environmental standard whatsoever, the opportunity to go green and grow the ELV processing and refurbished auto-parts sector of the Canadian automotive industry is enormous.
The goals of regulating ELV processing are ambitious but readily achievable: maximize reuse and recycling, minimize waste and pollution, drive growth and investment in the ELV processing sector, do not increase costs to purchasers of new vehicles while providing lower cost replacement parts to insurers, vehicle owners and customers of the Canadian automotive aftermarket repair industry.
Usman Valiante is a principal of Corporate Policy Group which specializes in business and government policies and programs for the environment.
February 2011 Canadian Technician
Even so, these end-of-life vehicles (ELV) have considerable economic value. In particular, the metal associated with vehicle construction ensures that most ELVs are eventually recycled as scrap metal. While there are no comprehensive sources of data related to the percentage of automobiles in Canada that are recovered and processed, all indications are that more than 90% of ELVs are processed to various degrees.
While the base metal recycling rate for automobiles is relatively high, not all automobiles are processed properly before being recycled for the metal content. Vehicles are generally compressed and shredded before they are shipped to bulk metal recyclers – often without the substances of concern being removed beforehand.
This practice is prevalent because for certain types of ELV processors, it’s more profitable to avoid the additional cost of removing harmful substances. In these cases fluids are often absorbed into vehicle shredder residue while other toxic substances – including mercury, lead and ozone-depleting gasses – are released into the environment.
A number of automotive recyclers that are primarily in the ELV processing sector focus on vehicle dismantling and “de-pollution” services. Many of these ELV processors are members of the Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC). ARC members provide ELV management to the federal government’s Retire Your Ride vehicle scrappage incentive program, which requires adherence to the National Code of Practice for Automotive Recyclers Participating in the National Vehicle Scrappage Program.
The National Code is implemented in Ontario as the Certified Auto Recycler (O-CAR) program. In Ontario, every vehicle recycled by a member of the Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association (OARA is the provincial affiliate of ARC) goes through a methodical process to maximize reclamation of environmentally-sensitive materials in order to minimize the environmental impact. Batteries – as well as substances of concern such as mercury switches, motor oils, windshield washer fluid, coolants, brake fluids, gasoline, and refrigerants – are all removed and properly managed prior to forwarding or processing the remaining vehicular hulk for metal recycling.
While recycling ELV materials such as aluminum and steel contributes to lower greenhouse gas emissions and pollution (in comparison to making such metals from virgin materials), reuse of vehicle parts generates significant additional environmental benefits through reduced pollution and material requirements associated with the manufacture of new parts.
Reusing parts also has economic benefits in terms of providing vehicle owners with a cost-effective source of replacement parts. Reuse of parts also providers the aftermarket repair and custom sector with a similar source of parts while lowering insurance claim costs as body shops and repair shops are able to access refurbished parts recovered from ELV vehicles.
Recognizing that Retire Your Ride is set to expire in March, OARA has been working with the Ontario government to transform O-CAR from a voluntary processing standard to a regulated environmental standard. If implemented, the standard will be administered by an oversight body that will ensure ELV processors operate consistently to that standard. Concurrently, OARA is collaborating with environmental groups and a number of leading auto manufacturers that have recognized the need to ensure ELVs are properly processed at the end of their operating lives.
With about three of every four cars in Canada not being managed to any environmental standard whatsoever, the opportunity to go green and grow the ELV processing and refurbished auto-parts sector of the Canadian automotive industry is enormous.
The goals of regulating ELV processing are ambitious but readily achievable: maximize reuse and recycling, minimize waste and pollution, drive growth and investment in the ELV processing sector, do not increase costs to purchasers of new vehicles while providing lower cost replacement parts to insurers, vehicle owners and customers of the Canadian automotive aftermarket repair industry.
Usman Valiante is a principal of Corporate Policy Group which specializes in business and government policies and programs for the environment.
February 2011 Canadian Technician
Friday, March 04, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Ontario Auto Recyclers Seeing Green in “Green Parts” Marketing
North of the border, members of the Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association (OARA) are reaping the benefits of an innovative marketing campaign that has consumers viewing the recycled parts industry in an entirely new light. Using the tag line “Good for the earth, good for your wallet, good for your vehicle” OARA has re-branded recycled used parts as “Green Parts”.
OARA Managing Director Steve Fletcher explained the genesis of the campaign. “We saw an opportunity to take advantage of the societal shift toward environmental concerns, but our research showed that those concerns don’t always translate into buying decisions. If consumers think that the greener option is somehow inferior or more expensive than what they’re doing now, they’re less likely to change their buying habits.” he said. “This program communicates the real environmental and cost savings benefits of using recycled parts. We know that recycled parts aren’t for everyone or for every repair, but if we can increase the consumer’s acceptance of Green Parts as a viable option, everybody involved in the industry will win.”
Now in its third year, the program has evolved using a top-down, bottom up strategy that capitalizes on the marketing strengths of both the association and its local members. “As an association, we’re driving the Green Parts brand message to a mass audience through things like our web site, our video production and a national advertising campaign in CAA magazine (the Canadian equivalent of AAA). But we’ve also developed a number of marketing tools that make it easy for our members to grab on to the brand and execute it at the local level” said Fletcher.
OARA’s arsenal of local marketing tools includes brochures, posters, ad mats, trade show display units, a radio jingle and fully produced radio ads. Most of the resources are available for members to download from a password protected section of the OARA web site and can be easily customized for their own use. Last year, participating members were able to order large quantities of a newspaper tabloid insert at a very low price so they could distribute them in their own markets. “The Green Parts marketing initiative has given our members a very real return on their membership investment.
With all of these items at their disposal, it’s easy for OARA Members to go to market locally and elevate their whole brand profile. They’re no longer just the local scrap yard; they’ve become the go-to guys in town for this new environmentally conscious, cost-saving face of the industry.”
OARA has licenced the logo to the Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC) association and its Members, and they have recently signed an agreement for ARA to amend and adopt the logo for the US market.
OARA Managing Director Steve Fletcher explained the genesis of the campaign. “We saw an opportunity to take advantage of the societal shift toward environmental concerns, but our research showed that those concerns don’t always translate into buying decisions. If consumers think that the greener option is somehow inferior or more expensive than what they’re doing now, they’re less likely to change their buying habits.” he said. “This program communicates the real environmental and cost savings benefits of using recycled parts. We know that recycled parts aren’t for everyone or for every repair, but if we can increase the consumer’s acceptance of Green Parts as a viable option, everybody involved in the industry will win.”
Now in its third year, the program has evolved using a top-down, bottom up strategy that capitalizes on the marketing strengths of both the association and its local members. “As an association, we’re driving the Green Parts brand message to a mass audience through things like our web site, our video production and a national advertising campaign in CAA magazine (the Canadian equivalent of AAA). But we’ve also developed a number of marketing tools that make it easy for our members to grab on to the brand and execute it at the local level” said Fletcher.
OARA’s arsenal of local marketing tools includes brochures, posters, ad mats, trade show display units, a radio jingle and fully produced radio ads. Most of the resources are available for members to download from a password protected section of the OARA web site and can be easily customized for their own use. Last year, participating members were able to order large quantities of a newspaper tabloid insert at a very low price so they could distribute them in their own markets. “The Green Parts marketing initiative has given our members a very real return on their membership investment.
With all of these items at their disposal, it’s easy for OARA Members to go to market locally and elevate their whole brand profile. They’re no longer just the local scrap yard; they’ve become the go-to guys in town for this new environmentally conscious, cost-saving face of the industry.”
OARA has licenced the logo to the Automotive Recyclers of Canada (ARC) association and its Members, and they have recently signed an agreement for ARA to amend and adopt the logo for the US market.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Doing the right thing for your old car
September 24, 2010 by Mark Richardson, Wheels Editor
Another World Car Free Day came and went this past Wednesday, and once again, in Toronto barely anybody noticed. Well, except the angry motorists forced to detour around an empty area near Queen’s Park, sparcely populated by a poorly-managed event.
Once again, we’re reminded that this is not Europe, where they know how to make their point properly and constructively about the need to relieve congested cities.
A much better organized event took place at the same time at Metro Hall, where a mobile crusher was set up by the Retire Your Ride organization. Four older cars were brought in to die very public deaths in front of a small cluster of lunch-breaking office workers, who were fascinated by the flattening destruction of it all, present company included.
The cars were squished in order to publicize the final six months of the program, which offers incentives to owners of older cars to get them off the road, but which ends March 31. The organizers don’t hate cars — far from it. They just hate old cars that spew far more pollutants than they have to. According to their stats, cars that are at least 15 years old belch out an average of 19 times the noxious emissions of cars built since 2004.
Retire Your Ride is a federal government program that will pay you $300 in cash for your 1995-or-older car if you agree to take it to a wrecker’s yard that adheres to a recognized code of responsible environmental recycling. You can also get discounts off things like bicycles and electric bicycles and transit passes, and some manufacturers — GM, Ford, Chrysler and Hyundai — will give generous discounts off new replacement cars.
The program was roundly criticized last year for its meagre incentive. After all, what was $300 compared to the thousands of dollars being offered in other countries, such as Britain, the U.S. and Germany? Where was the real incentive?
Asked about this, Steve Fletcher shakes his head. He’s managing director of the Automotive Recyclers of Canada and he’s just come from an international industry conference in Quebec. According to him, the participants “universally condemned those programs as a boondoggle. In the United States, they paid thousands of dollars each for 690,000 cars, without asking where they would go once they were off the road.
“It was just a stimulus package for the economy to sell more cars. Those governments went into it hot and heavy and it was all over before anybody could even think about it. It’s apples to oranges to compare them with the Canadian program.”
Here in Canada, it seems we’re much more sensible. Retire Your Ride wasn’t about getting the auto industry restarted, and apparently one of every five people who cashed in their clunkers did not replace them. Instead, it wanted to establish a sustainable model that would encourage environmentally responsible recycling.
According to spokesperson Carla Kearns, the program has pulled 96,000 cars off Canadian roads since its inception in February, 2009, which is well within its target of 50,000 a year. Of course, many — probably most — of those cars would have been junked anyway, but the whole point was to ensure that they died a responsible death, properly recycled by qualified wreckers. You don’t need a licence in this country to operate a yard and rip cars to pieces, selling the metal for whatever you can get, but if you want the government to send old vehicles your way, you need to pass and adhere to a code of responsible recycling.
For example, you can’t resell the inefficient old engine. You need to remove the mercury motion switches from the hoods and trunks of cars, instead of leaving the toxic blobs of metal to leach into the landfill with the rest of the vehicle’s plastics and foam and glass. And you need to drain all the old oils and coolant and gas — the average discarded vehicle has about 40 litres of fluid in it, of which up to 95 per cent can be removed.
But this takes extra time, which costs money and cuts into profit. Most wrecked cars are worth a little under $200 in metal alone, says Fletcher, while another $200-to-$300 can be found by reselling things like wheels and catalytic converters.
Margins like that make it tough to have a conscience. Fletcher says it’s not a level playing field between the 350 Canadian recyclers who adhere to the code and the 1,500 or so who haven’t signed on.
“If our members can afford to pay $100 per car because that fits their higher costs structure, and the guy down the street has no such concerns (for the environment) and can pay two or three times that, who are you going to sell your old car to?” he asks.
“The only incentive is for you to understand what is the right thing to do. Without support from government, or from auto makers, we’re fighting a losing economic battle.”
That’s what Retire Your Ride has been trying to correct, and attempting to do in a comparatively inexpensive, sustainable way. But it’s all over in six months and the hope is that those automakers who have signed on to its principles will keep its message going. Maybe others, too. There are still an estimated 2.5 million cars on Canadian roads that are at least 15 years old.
For the sake of all those toxic chemicals leaching into our landfills, let’s hope so. After all, it’s an intelligent and constructive idea, and far more realistic than just trying to bully us into going car free.
For more information, call 1-877-773-1996, or go to retireyourride.ca
Mark Richardson is the editor of Wheels. mrichardson@thestar.ca
Another World Car Free Day came and went this past Wednesday, and once again, in Toronto barely anybody noticed. Well, except the angry motorists forced to detour around an empty area near Queen’s Park, sparcely populated by a poorly-managed event.
Once again, we’re reminded that this is not Europe, where they know how to make their point properly and constructively about the need to relieve congested cities.
A much better organized event took place at the same time at Metro Hall, where a mobile crusher was set up by the Retire Your Ride organization. Four older cars were brought in to die very public deaths in front of a small cluster of lunch-breaking office workers, who were fascinated by the flattening destruction of it all, present company included.
The cars were squished in order to publicize the final six months of the program, which offers incentives to owners of older cars to get them off the road, but which ends March 31. The organizers don’t hate cars — far from it. They just hate old cars that spew far more pollutants than they have to. According to their stats, cars that are at least 15 years old belch out an average of 19 times the noxious emissions of cars built since 2004.
Retire Your Ride is a federal government program that will pay you $300 in cash for your 1995-or-older car if you agree to take it to a wrecker’s yard that adheres to a recognized code of responsible environmental recycling. You can also get discounts off things like bicycles and electric bicycles and transit passes, and some manufacturers — GM, Ford, Chrysler and Hyundai — will give generous discounts off new replacement cars.
The program was roundly criticized last year for its meagre incentive. After all, what was $300 compared to the thousands of dollars being offered in other countries, such as Britain, the U.S. and Germany? Where was the real incentive?
Asked about this, Steve Fletcher shakes his head. He’s managing director of the Automotive Recyclers of Canada and he’s just come from an international industry conference in Quebec. According to him, the participants “universally condemned those programs as a boondoggle. In the United States, they paid thousands of dollars each for 690,000 cars, without asking where they would go once they were off the road.
“It was just a stimulus package for the economy to sell more cars. Those governments went into it hot and heavy and it was all over before anybody could even think about it. It’s apples to oranges to compare them with the Canadian program.”
Here in Canada, it seems we’re much more sensible. Retire Your Ride wasn’t about getting the auto industry restarted, and apparently one of every five people who cashed in their clunkers did not replace them. Instead, it wanted to establish a sustainable model that would encourage environmentally responsible recycling.
According to spokesperson Carla Kearns, the program has pulled 96,000 cars off Canadian roads since its inception in February, 2009, which is well within its target of 50,000 a year. Of course, many — probably most — of those cars would have been junked anyway, but the whole point was to ensure that they died a responsible death, properly recycled by qualified wreckers. You don’t need a licence in this country to operate a yard and rip cars to pieces, selling the metal for whatever you can get, but if you want the government to send old vehicles your way, you need to pass and adhere to a code of responsible recycling.
For example, you can’t resell the inefficient old engine. You need to remove the mercury motion switches from the hoods and trunks of cars, instead of leaving the toxic blobs of metal to leach into the landfill with the rest of the vehicle’s plastics and foam and glass. And you need to drain all the old oils and coolant and gas — the average discarded vehicle has about 40 litres of fluid in it, of which up to 95 per cent can be removed.
But this takes extra time, which costs money and cuts into profit. Most wrecked cars are worth a little under $200 in metal alone, says Fletcher, while another $200-to-$300 can be found by reselling things like wheels and catalytic converters.
Margins like that make it tough to have a conscience. Fletcher says it’s not a level playing field between the 350 Canadian recyclers who adhere to the code and the 1,500 or so who haven’t signed on.
“If our members can afford to pay $100 per car because that fits their higher costs structure, and the guy down the street has no such concerns (for the environment) and can pay two or three times that, who are you going to sell your old car to?” he asks.
“The only incentive is for you to understand what is the right thing to do. Without support from government, or from auto makers, we’re fighting a losing economic battle.”
That’s what Retire Your Ride has been trying to correct, and attempting to do in a comparatively inexpensive, sustainable way. But it’s all over in six months and the hope is that those automakers who have signed on to its principles will keep its message going. Maybe others, too. There are still an estimated 2.5 million cars on Canadian roads that are at least 15 years old.
For the sake of all those toxic chemicals leaching into our landfills, let’s hope so. After all, it’s an intelligent and constructive idea, and far more realistic than just trying to bully us into going car free.
For more information, call 1-877-773-1996, or go to retireyourride.ca
Mark Richardson is the editor of Wheels. mrichardson@thestar.ca
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
