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Ford Shows Off Recyclable Car
Opspin writes "MBDC (who wrote the book Cradle to Cradle) write in their
January Newsletter about a Ford Concept Car that includes Bluetooth technology as well as Cradle-to-Cradle design strategies. Read the MBDC press release, and the Ford Motor Company press release."
Just keep buildin' and buyin' and throwin' away... keep the economy ticking over, keep the boys employed, keep suckin' up those natural resources... mm.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
I must say that it's a great concept, but my first impression is that the thing is really ugly. I wonder how many people rank the look of their vehicle in the list of priorities for buying. If they do, will the look of this one negatively affect its sales?
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
In all honesty, how many people do you think actually recycle? Fine, a new disposable environmentally friendly car is developed. But, last I checked, most recyclable items still ended up in trash and ultimately in land fills. I can't imagine what would happen if you could throw away a car that often
It doesn't help that the President now wants to provide tax incentives for certain types of SUV owners. Face it, beneath the green rhetoric, the US is a society that lives on pig iron and fossil fuels.
Seems that a car like this should be more geared twords business or people who buy on a leese. For the general buyer, a throw away car will not be all that hot of an idea. Having monthly payments on a limited income is what you try to avoid. While this idea really isnt new, im suprised that Ford is one of the first to actually come out and say "Hey, this car wont last x yrs and its not made to." One other thing, how enviromently friendly is a car like this anyway? Ya, it cuts down on emitions and fuel consumption but havning an entire car get retired and destroyed after a short period of time isnt all that great. The car will still have to be gutted, crushed, recycled back to workable material, all this generating waste and other nice byproducts. Looks like we might just be creating the same amout of toxins and waste just in another area.
Chris
It says a lot of the market here (or what Ford & GM think of the market) that Ford is greener in the EU than in the US. There's a 50+ mpg Ford Focus selling in the UK, there's a Volvo (owned by Ford) diesel sedam/stn wagon that has more oomph than the most poerful gas version with 40+ mpg, and Merc and BMW have hotrod diesel sedans in regular production over there. Think about it, a doubling of fuel efficiency of they'd sell the same thing here, with no war, no pain, no massive infrastructure changes, almost nothing. OK, maybe $1k more for the more expensive engine, but consider how we'd all pay more for a V6 vs an inline 4 cylinder.
DIsposable cars, I mean isn't this a prblem waiting for a solution? Cars recycle better than most things right now, the major component steel, becomes structural steel for buildings.
In this respect I have to say Toyota and Honda are the most serious about improving our environmental impact. While they pay all due homage to hydogen fuel cell and interchangeable bodies and other "cool" concepts, they're selling practical highly efficient vehicles like the Prius and the Impact (there's a 5 door version out now, don't know what they call it). Of course, there's always been the 50 mpg Jetta if you really look. And all 3 companies have not a trace of US ownership.
It's about time they started making the things from carbon fibre (or even glass fibre), which is easily repaired, lightweight (therefore more fuel efficient), and totally immune to corrosion. The attitude that a car is a disposable commodity, to be tossed in the trash every couple of years is daft. I would rather see manufacturers offering upgrades to existing vehicle as an alternative.
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
Excellent points all around. Your thinking argues for an entirely different strategy.
You want true automotive recycling? Pursue greater modularity and standard across automakers. Decrease black-boxiness of parts (make them mechanic repairable as they once were).
Of course these goals, as always, are probably at cross purposes with others.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
...about car manufacturers who boast about their cars being easily recycled instead of their cars being engineered to last a lifetime?
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
This is more than just appeasing environmentalists. By designing and building a car that is easier to recycle, they reduce the cost of recycling. Which reduces the price of recycled materials. Which reduces the price of making new products from the recycled materials. If the US requires auto companies to take back and recycle their products, Ford has already reduced their cost of complying. There are already products in the US that manufacturers are require to take back for recycling.
Damn, I wish I could mod this guy up.
Better yet, it might be wise to bring back the days when cars were built almost entirely out of steel, not out of plastic and sheet metal like they are today. Those old cars could withstand collisions with just about anything short of a tractor/trailer (lorry for you Brits), and sometimes even then. You could actually walk away from a 20mph crash, instead of having to call for an ambulance.
If you can make a new car as crash-resistant as an old one, without using steel, that'll be great. If not... well, I care more about my safety than I do about miles per gallon. I agree that most people don't need gas guzzlers such as SUV's, but the sacrifice of auto safety on the altar of the environment has been going on for way too long.
Utilizing magnetic schemata since
that most of our electricity comes from fossil fuels, and recycling takes energy...and there's also the tiny detail that the price of a disposable car isn't going to be much, if at all, less than a normal car made of real parts due to R/D costs and the fact that there aren't convenient hydrogen stations across the nation lining our highways.
So unless something magically makes Ford decide to get with the oil companies and convert the stations while swapping their pricing model to something a little cheaper (say, 2 to 6 thousand dollars US), then I am quite sure that Henry Ford is rolling in his grave as they compare this to his Model T, because the Model T was nothing if not successful and affordable.
So until this all comes to pass, I think I'll stick with my Crown Vic, content with the fact that it doesn't keel over and die when I pass 100,000 miles on the odometer and the fact that I have only had to do non-preventative maintenance once.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
There's a lot about a modern car that's very difficult to recycle. Printed Circuit Boards have lead, plastic, and a myriad of other toxic things. Some kinds of plastic are expensive to recycle, and plastics with coloring agents are almost useless for reusing in the same type of product.
You also run into health issues (Like, did the previous owners let mold grow in the seats?)
What's this Submit thingy do?