Scrapping old cars

[Barry Edmunds]

A number of countries have or are about to consider introducing a scrappage scheme to get old cars off the roads. In the UK the car company bosses are urging the government to launch such a scheem as  amatter of urgency.

The car companies are, not surprisingly, wanting such a scheme introduced as it would bring in an estimated 280,000 new car sales, notwithstanding the less than favourable economic climate that currently prevails in the UK and most other countries.

The argument put forward by the car industry is that such a scrappage scheme would not only boost employment in the industry but stop up to 100,000 tons of CO2 being pumped into the enviroment in a year, presumably created by these old cars.

Now I am not against such a scheme being brought in to get the smokey, rusty and poorly maintained old clunkers off the roads, but has anyone considered, or indeed worked out, how many tons of CO2 would be pumped into the air by the manufacturers producing these 280,000 new cars.

[Davidm1600]

Hi Barry indeed I think you are likely to be correct there, since if you did a full life cycle analysis of the materials used to make a car, not just the steel, (and that is not taking into consideration the carbon generation issues associated with recycling of materials from old cars etc) but as well all the plastic, glass, rubber etc I think it could make for a very interesting scenario. 

I think this too is part of the argument against so called Hybrid cars as being truely green and environmentally sustainable.  From my reading of the situation it is a falicious argument on behalf of the manufacturers (eg. Toyota, Honda etc) and people who advocate them.  I know for one thing, if you take just one component of these cars (the batteries) this alone shows the hypocrasy.  I recall Captain Slow's review of the hydrogen powered Honda (in the US) which to my mind is a far better choice in respect of reducing carbon emissions than the battery partially engined hybrid approach, that so many advocate.

So mate in the meantime, lets keep our old cars going, well maintained (tuned, and in good nick of course) since environmentally they are a hell of a lot more resource sustainable than all these new cars.  The classic car movement/press understands this argument but the rest don't. Dave