How green is this? Where are these clunkers going?

August 5th, 2009 at 08:58pm Jennie Pollock

Cash for Clunkers may not be as green as it seems, according to NPR’s “How Green Is It?” series.

“The estimates vary, but somewhere between 3 and, say, 12 tons of CO2 are produced for every car you make,” says William Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University.

Chameides calculates that if you trade in an 18 mpg clunker for a 22 mpg new car (22 miles per gallon is the minimum mileage allowed for a new car under the program), it would take five and a half years of typical driving to offset the new car’s carbon footprint. With trucks, it might take eight or nine years, he says.

Of course, the bigger the mileage improvement from your old car to the new one, the more gas you save and the faster you work off the new car’s carbon footprint. If you trade in a 20 mpg car for a Prius that gets about 48 mpg, it saves so much gas that you can offset the Prius’ footprint in about a year and a half. (But a 20 mpg car doesn’t qualify as a clunker, so there’s no government voucher).

And the clunkers, by law, must be, crushed or shredded within six months no matter what, even if they still have usable parts, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Before that…

After your new-car purchase, the dealer is obligated to drain your old car’s oil and replace it with a sodium silicate solution, also known as liquid glass. The silicate is causes the engine’s parts to freeze and ensures it never cruises the highway again. Then the dealer writes the cruel words, “junk vehicle, cars.gov” on the car’s title.

The dealer has seven days after receiving government reimbursement before the car has to be sent to its next stop on the retirement road trip – the certified disposal facility (CDF). Most dealers will shop around, searching for the CDF willing to offer the best price for your clunker, whether it’s a scrap processor, auto recycler, or salvage auction.

Yet clunkers are unknown entities for the CDFs, according to Michael Wilson, executive vice president of the Automotive Recyclers Association. They have to invest $700 to $1,200 to remove a car’s fluids, mercury switches and Freon, and after that, they’re not sure what kind of return they might be able to get. In ordinary times, the drivetrain and engine block account for about 60 percent of the salable parts, but the CARS program renders the engine useless and limits the terms under which the drivetrain can be sold.

At this point, the clunker has two options. If it’s a newer model, it will usually go to a full-service, professional parts dismantler where it will be instantly stripped of the 20 to 40 most commonly reused parts. If it’s an older model, it will sit at a self-service parts recycler, where individuals will pick a needed piece here and there.

Entry Filed under: Green politics, Green business, In the news