Post Tagged with: "Regulations"

California toxic waste regulators target automobile recycling ‘fluff’

May 29, 2009 at 10:16 pm

(Source: LA Times)

The leftovers from car shredders have been used to cover trash at landfills, but state officials now say the practice has health risks and should be stopped. Industry officials say fluff is safe.

At a recycling plant in San Pedro and five other similar operations around California, giant shredding machines annually reduce 1.3 million junk cars, refrigerators and other appliances into fist-sized chunks of metal.
Valuable scrap that contains iron is separated so it can be turned back into steel. Hunks of aluminum, copper and other alloys are pulled out for reprocessing.
But the leftovers — bits of glass, fiber, rubber, engine fluids, dirt and plastics — are getting new attention from state toxic substance regulators, and the $500-million-a-year shredding industry is fighting back.

For years, auto-shredding companies have been hauling tons of these treated leftovers, known in the industry as fluff, to municipal landfills under a state variance granted more than 20 years ago.

State officials now say they are concerned that residue from heavy metals in the fluff could seep from landfills into groundwater, while airborne metal-laden particles could endanger workers at recycling plants and dumps and people living in neighborhoods near such facilities.

The industry maintains that the 700,000 tons of material it delivers to landfills each year pose no threat to health or safety.

A change in state policy, if finalized, could mean that fluff may need to be transported under more strict conditions to special hazardous waste disposal sites, according to the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

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Hybrid cars sales in the US are falling at a ‘breakneck pace’

March 18, 2009 at 3:30 pm

(Source: Financial Times)

Despite the US government’s determination to increase efficiency standards and become energy independent, hybrid cars sales in the US are falling at a ‘breakneck pace’ – even faster than overall car sales, reports the LA Times:

Last month, only 15,144 hybrids sold nationwide, down almost two-thirds from April, when the segment’s sales peaked and gas averaged $3.57 a gallon. That’s far larger than the drop in industry sales for the period and scarcely a better showing than January, when hybrid sales were at their lowest since early 2005.

In July, U.S. Toyota dealers didn’t have enough Prius models in stock to last two days, and many were charging thousands of dollars above sticker price for the few they had.

Today there are about 80 days’ worth on hand, and dealers are working much harder — even with the help of $500 factory rebates — to move the egg-shaped gas-savers off lots from Santa Monica to Miami.

The gist of the story is even though hybrids are more expensive and therefore less attractive to consumers in these recession-bound times, car makers are compelled by government regulations to continue developing them. Hybrid cars are not particularly profitable for the industry either; Toyota only recently began to turn a profit on its Prius.

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Obama administration works on U.S. fuel rule

March 5, 2009 at 12:57 pm

State standards could be supplanted

(Source: Freep.com, Detriot Free Press)

WASHINGTON — Even as his administration moves toward allowing California and other states to set limits on vehicle fuel economy, President Barack Obama has begun crafting a new national standard that will likely supplant the states’ efforts.Hello again, cheap gas

The moves would allow the president to fulfill a campaign promise to let the California limits take effect while addressing the chorus of concerns from a financially beleaguered U.S. auto industry about meeting a so-called patchwork of state-level greenhouse gas controls, in addition to federal fuel economy rules.

The rules are different but the effect is similar — greater fuel efficiency from vehicles leads to reduced emissions.

The administration has raised the idea for a national limit as part of its talks with Detroit automakers and suppliers for additional aid, an administration official said Wednesday.

“The president believes that one national policy for autos would provide the industry with certainty while achieving our environmental and energy independence goals,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The California rules would have little immediate effect on automakers if adopted, but the standards would toughen annually through 2020.It´s the economy, stupid!

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