With the Olympics set to thrust The People's Republic of China into the world spotlight, the dictatorship's rulers have been attacking "environmental issues." Green Biz News reports the latest step in what the Chinese Communist Party terms "the scientific model of development:" a massive auto-parts recycling program. Three manufacturers and 11 parts suppliers have "agreed" to recycle engines, transmissions and electrical generators. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers estimates that four million old cars will be junked each year by 2010. They maintain that refurbished parts from dead cars cost only 60 percent of new components. Meanwhile, in the U.S., parts recycling companies like LKQ are making big money (even without government intervention). As automotive profits become harder to find in a sagging economy, reuse and recycling is getting a major shot in the proverbial arm. See how that works?
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Once again, the reliance on wealth distribution to maintain power hinders the green movement. The biggest problem with recycling is the labor costs. A consumption based tax system would flip the equation way towards recycling.
I know, I know, I killed this horse weeks ago. I will try to stop.
well, they’ll probably have the lead paint problem licked pretty soon.
might as well start building “new” cars with refurb parts and selling them at wal*mart.
It’s not just an environmental issue. They’re desperate for resources, with projections showing they’ll soon be running out of essential metals at the present rate of consumption.
The Chinese are buying scrap metal from everywhere and processing it in China.
That lead paint comment reminds me – I went to a lecture sponsored by Armstrong last night. They make ceilings, floor coverings, wall coverings, etc., and have jumped into green design with both feet. So they had this fellow from US Green Building Council, who in a most pleasant way told us how dumb we were about green choices, etc. He asserted that most Americans only had two easy green choices: buy a hybrid and shop at Whole Foods, and that even those are problematic. He told stories of people with 15,000 SF houses and luxury yachts thinking they were eco-warriors because they also owned a Prius.
He couldn’t find a cheap bike for his kids that wasn’t painted by some child in China, with no respirator for protection against the lead, so he felt compelled to buy expensive mountain bikes and hope the seats raise up until his kids go away to college.
“The Chinese are buying scrap metal from everywhere and processing it in China.”
Including, from what I understand, the salvage metal from the WTC’s.
Discovering remanufactured parts, huh?
This has been a thriving industry for decades. Most of the replacement alternators, starters, transmission and engines in the US are remanufactured parts.
This has been a thriving industry for decades. Most of the replacement alternators, starters, transmission and engines in the US are remanufactured parts.
I have no problem with this, unless the parts happend to be purchased at AutoZone then after a few hundred miles its back to the good ol parts store in your neighbor’s wife’s grand am… how great is that. The people of communist china will do everything to polish up their nation when the Olympics come around, but who do they think they have fooled?
The Chinese are some amazing recyclers. In most cities the bulk of the work is done on tricycles.
The people of communist china will do everything to polish up their nation when the Olympics come around, but who do they think they have fooled?
The Chinese will fool plenty of people, because easy stereotypes get you nowhere when you’re talking about a culture of over a billion people with thousands of years of history. Things are also changing so fast there that what is true one day might not be the next. There are some things that they won’t fool anybody about, like Tibet and air pollution… but then every country has those little embarrassments, don’t they?
Hey, give me a billion serfs willing to work for slave wages and I could do some amazing recycling too. In this country, we won’t allow prisoners to work in the conditions those people do.