Detroit’s Big Three, Ford Motor Co., Chrysler LLC, and General Motors Corp., announced an initiative this week to make their cars and trucks 100% recyclable. They will work with the U.S. Council for Automotive Research’s Vehicle Recycling Partnership to target the goal of creating all recyclable parts in cars and trucks.
Vehicles compare very well to other recycling sectors. Currently, 95% of all auto parts in the U.S. are recycled compared to the much lower numbers of 52% of paper products and 31% of plastic drink bottles , according to statistics produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
One of the automakers already has a high number of recyclable parts in its cars and trucks. Ford uses 85% recyclable parts in its cars and trucks. Some of the parts include scrap metal, and other non-metallic parts such as splash shields, battery trays, carpet, and engine fan shrouds. Automotive scrap metal, at one third of the material in the entire scrap processing industry, is a huge market for recycling.
Ford did not make public what percentage of their cars and trucks presently are built from recycled materials.
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