Automobiles.

• Position: LIFE-CYCLE STUDIES

Overview

Worldwide, there are 551 million cars on the roads, and we're buying about 44 million new ones every year. The United States invented the car culture and hosts a quarter of the total. (In a few years, China will own another quarter.) There are more U.S. private cars than licensed drivers. But not everyone succumbs, especially where distances are short and/or there is good public transit. Nearly one-third of families in Denmark, for instance, are car-less. In New York City, only 25 percent of the residents are licensed to drive.

Disposal

Roughly 35 million cars leave service every year. Quite a few are exported to developing nations; in Dakar, for instance, 84 percent of the vehicles are imported used cars (average age: 15 years) and are major polluters. But old vehicles are a huge resource worth billions, since recycling the materials in a typical car can save 1,134 kg of iron ore and 636 kg of coal. Three-quarters of the stuff in an old car, mostly ferrous metals, can be salvaged. The one-quarter that's left--called ASR, for automotive shredder residue--is a troublesome blend of glass, rubber, plastics, non-magnetic metals, and fluids, some of it toxic and/or hazardous. Until recently, most was landfilled; in European Union countries, ASR accounts for about 10 percent of hazardous waste.

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Hence the push to make cars easier to take apart and recycle, and to use cleaner materials and processes in their manufacture. Saab has cut the amount of painting solvents per car by over 80 percent since the early 1990s. The European Union recently passed a law requiring manufacturers to pay for recycling the toxic waste from old cars. A new Japanese law requires car companies to charge buyers up to 18,000 yen ($175) to pay for recovery and recycling of ASR and the chlorofluorocarbons in air conditioners and airbags. Japan and the EU plan to raise car recycling rates from about 80 percent today to 95 percent (Japan) and 85 percent (EU) by 2015.

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