By CRM Staff
Massachusetts, United States — January 17, 2018 — While the recycling of auto parts and reclamation of steel and aluminum from cars has long been known to have a dramatic effect on the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, the actual statistics on carbon savings are difficult to ascertain – at least in most parts of North America.
Tired of this lack-of-data, members of the Automotive Recyclers of Massachusetts (ARM) worked with the state’s world renowned Metal Processing Institute at Worchester Polytechnic, producing a study showing the industry’s carbon savings in New England.
The answer? Auto recyclers reduce Massachusetts’ carbon footprint by about two million tonnes of per annum – an impressive amount given that Massachusetts estimates the states total emissions to be about 75 million tonnes per annum.
Produced under the direction of the institute’s top academic, Professor Brajendra Mishra, the study’s greatest challenge was in explaining the knock-on carbon savings of the industry – from iron and aluminum extraction, to car part manufacturing.
“What the automotive recyclers are doing is saving materials, saving energy and impacting the environment in a positive way, thus adding value to the economy of the state,”
While the numbers found in the study cannot be easily extrapolated to find an equivalent amount of carbon saved by the industry in Canada, the methodology used by the study could be used as the framework for industries in any corner of the world.
For more information, please visit armmass.com/carbon-footprint-study.
