DID YOU KNOW ABOUT – MOTOR VEHICLES
Every year, approximately 2 million new vehicles are registered and a similar number are scrapped.
The average life span of a car is 13.5 years and in 2000, just over 2 million cars and vans reached the end of their useful lives, either because of old age or due to accidents.
An estimated 50% of the 20,000 tonnes of oil removed from vehicles by motorists is handled improperly.
If oil finds its way into sewers and watercourses, it can cause significant contamination - one litre of waste oil is sufficient to contaminate one million litres of water and oil poured onto the ground will affect soil fertility.
The recycling rate for car batteries is estimated to exceed 90%, however, a significant number of batteries are still not recovered and recycled
Waste oil from nearly 3 million car oil changes in Britain is not collected. If collected properly, this could meet the annual energy needs of 1.5 million people.
Currently about 98% of the metals in a car are recycled. These metals are recovered by the vehicle shredding industry and subsequently utilised by the steel industry and re-smelting plants. |
