rides

Eventually, we all have to bid adieu to a favorite car. The next time it happens, take comfort in the fact that cars are the most recycled manufactured product in the world, so your trusty auto will live on - just in a different form.

Metal: About 65 percent of the average car is metal, comprised of steel, iron and other metals - making recycling crucial. According to the Steel Recycling Institute, virtually all of this material is recovered for reuse. Wheels, engines, transmissions, wiring and body shells get shredded and filtered by ferrous scrap processors and the material is then sold to steel mills.

Batteries: The bad news: 70 percent of all lead used in the US is in car batteries. The good news: People have known about the toxicity of lead for years, and recycling has been available for years as well. “Nearly 90 percent of all lead-acid batteries are recycled,” confirms Latisha Petteway, Spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “Almost any retailer that sells lead-acid batteries collects used batteries for recycling, as required by most state laws.”

Tires: The bad news: In 2005, the Rubber Manufacturer’s Association estimated, based on U.S. census reports, that 299 million tires were discarded. The good news: 86 percent of that number was reused. While today’s tires are complex, they are also extremely recyclable. The rubber from old tires is transformed into into a multitude of materials, from pavements to playground covering. Some are used to create more tires, 16.255 million were retreaded in 05. They are also used to fuel cement kilns, boilers and paper mills.

Fluids: 380 million gallons of engine oil are reused or recycled each year in America. It goes through a refining process and comes out clean. Used gear oil, windshield wiper solution, brake fluid, power steering fluid, antifreeze and transmission fluid can contain nasty toxic stuff, including lead and the highly poisonous ethylene glycol. You need to drop it off at a collection site. All of the fluids can then either be blended and utilized as an alternate fuel source, or restored.