Recycling is not the perfect solution
In many cases recycling makes good sense. It permits us to utilise minerals, chemicals etc. again but when we do the embodied environmental impacts are added to. A better approach is to combine recycling with other concepts in a ranked order. Reduce Reuse Recycle Reduce: By reducing our demand for cars we naturally reduce environmental impact. If wefeel that we must have cars (or any other product) then finding ways to manufacture cars with a lower material content will reduce the environmental impact ofthe production process. The design stage can help here by addressing the issue of power fuel consumption so that the lifetime environmental cost of a car is reduced. Do electric cars have lower environmental impacts ?
Reuse: By reusing parts of a car such as the wheels then the overall environmental impact is reduced. Reusing the whole car, by selling it to a new owner, may help to further reduce environmental impact but be careful here. The new owner may otherwise not own a car and so this action increases the number of cars on the road and so increases environmental impact. The improved fuel economy of new cars may also make it preferable to replace old designs. Recycle: When materials are recycled they usually require less energy and other resources than was originally used to refine, transport and produce the material in the first case.
Environmental Indicators
The amount of energy used to manufacture a car can be used as an environmental indicator and so improvements in the manufacturing process would lead to reduced energy/car or energy /kg of product or carbon dioxide/car or other ways of assessing the value.