The automobile industry is probably the one big community that has been really putting in commendable efforts to clean itself up in the last decade or so. While the detractors will argue that it also is an industry that causes the most amount of pollution in form of carbon emissions that is not the point at all. It is at least making some efforts towards going green and these have been far greater in regards to both impact and innovation than taken up by anyone else.
A recent European Commission study stated that all new vehicles should be at least 85% recyclable or reusable by 2015. But the Volvo states that it has been on that mark ever since 2002 and will now be making cars that are 85% recyclable and 95% recoverable. That is truly remarkable in this time and age when people think that a car after a few years of service must be ripped to shreds and crushed to a huge metal plate. Volvo ensures us that all new models are 85% recyclable and designed for 95% recoverability as well as introducing initiatives to ensure that vehicles are clean throughout their life.
The use of recycled materials such as steel, iron, aluminum and many other metals is going to be now a common practice, while metals from the catalytic converter are reused in new catalysts. Even the Volvo battery plastic covers become the wheel-arch liners on new cars. Even the tanning procedure to create the leather in the seats of new Volvo’s has been changed to avoid the use of chromium. After looking at all that one cannot question the commitment of the company towards a green future. Ford has taken up a similar step too very recently. It is nice to see the automobile industry go all green!
