Cash For Clunkers Missed the Mark
The environmentally friendly CARS program is not doing much for the
environment in terms of waste. While there are fewer cars on the
roads that get bad gas mileage there is a back up of cars at the
salvage yards and crusher. The Automotive Recyclers Association says
that recycling auto parts saves 75 million barrels of oil each year.
The problem is that the Clunkers are not getting recycled.
As part of the Cash for Clunkers program the car’s engine must be
disabled. Salvage yards are finding it very difficult to verify if a
part is in working condition if they can run the car it is attached
to.
Therefore instead of buying up chucker’s to part-out, salvage yards
are passing them on to the metal shredder. The “reuse” part of
recycling is the most important step and the CARS program is not
enticing salvage yards to do that.
The goal of the CARS program is to take environmentally unfriendly
cars off the streets and create new jobs. For every 15 cars junked, a
job is created. Although there are new jobs being made, the flaw with
the engine disabling rule is missing the target for the little guy.
Instead of a booming salvage industry with buyers going mad over
hundreds of extra parts, salvage yards are looking like graveyards
while the shredder makes bank. If the engine could have been left
intact while the VIN is registered as a clunker then the salvage yard
could easily part out the inventory, leaving us with only scrap metal
from the useless parts.
