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Responsible recycling is as close as your own driveway
(NC)—Finding ways to divert harmful waste from our landfills is a constant concern for Canadians. Many times, we forget that recycling goes beyond household items and in fact spills into our driveways with some of the largest polluters out there – our vehicles. While paper, metal cans, glass bottles and plastic are the most commonly recycled household items in Canada, vehicles can be recycled just as easily through Retire Your Ride, Canada's national vehicle recycling program.
Did you know..?
• 75 per cent of an average car's content by weight can be recycled.
• A mandatory National Code of Practice for auto recyclers participating in Retire Your Ride has been established to prevent hazardous materials contained in end-of-life vehicles from contaminating our water, soil, and air during and after the vehicle recycling process.
• If your old car isn't properly drained of its oil, gasoline and refrigerants, and if its mercury switches are not removed, these hazardous materials can end up contaminating our air, soil and water.
• There is enough mercury in one small switch to contaminate a 20-acre lake. Although mercury switches are no longer being installed in new vehicles, there are about 9 tonnes of these switches still in vehicles on the road today.
• Oil is drained from all vehicles and either recycled or burned for energy recovery in approved facilities.
• Once the hazardous material is removed, the vehicle is crushed and sent to be shredded into fist-sized pieces for recovery. Any valuable metals are separated and re-used to make new cars and other consumer products... and the cycle starts again.
• Retire Your Ride offers great incentives to Canadians who retire their 1995 and older model year vehicles. They include free transit passes, discounts on the purchase of a new bicycle or vehicle, $300 cash and more.
• The program will run until March 31, 2011. To get started on retiring you old clunker or to get more information on car recycling and the program's success visit www.retireyourride.ca.
www.newscanada.com