Clunkers Rolling In Too Fast

Cash-for-clunkers was undoubtedly a successful program.  So much so that auto recyclers can not keep pace without he amount of cars rolling in as a result of the program, and are forced to seek time beyond the deadline to dispose of these vehicles, reports MSNBC.

“I’ve got a parking lot of almost 4,000 vehicles right now,” said Harry Haluptzok, chief executive of Minnesota based, John’s Auto Parts.  The article goes on to state that “His business typically dismantles 100 vehicles per week, but the workload has now more than doubled, and Haluptzok hired 10 more workers to keep up with all the extra vehicles.”

The program mandates that all cars traded in under the program be destroyed within six months of the date that the dealership takes possession of a car.  Though recyclers still have a few months left, they are having trouble keeping pace.  “True recycling is using something to its fullest potential and then recycling it over again by making it into steel and sending it out to become another engine or transmission or car,” Jeff Cantor, an auto recycler in Candia, N.H. told the Associated Press.  “We’re breaking that circle here by crushing good quality parts. We can’t process them quick enough in six months.”

A major source of the issue is that the six month deadline was developed when the program was only $1 billion strong, but has since been bombarded with an influx of vehicles since the programs budget tripled to $3 billion.

“If it’s about recycling, the thing to do is to give us another six months and let us do them the correct way each time,” Halputzok said, pointing out that many cars are going to the crusher prematurely and not being completely recycled.  Proper recycling of an automobile includes draining it of all fluids, and removing quality parts hat are still able to be put into use before crushing the car.  Many recyclers simply do not have enough time to do this properly and be in compliance with the deadlines.

-By Stephen Calogera

-Source: msnbc.com