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NI: Global Issues for Learners of English > The Issues > Trash > My car & the environment

My car
& the environment

When I drive my car with no other passengers, 95% of the energy goes into moving the 1,450 kilo car not in carrying me, its 64-kilo driver.

What Is My Car Made Of?

My car contains 800 kilos of steel, 180 kilos of iron, 112 kilos of plastics, 86 kilos of fluids, 85 kilos of aluminium and 62 kilos of rubber.

  

The Steel in My Car:

Nearly half the steel that was used to make my car began as scrap. The scrap was melted in a furnace, which produced eight pounds of toxic dust.

The rest of the steel came from a much dirtier place an open pit mine in the forests of Minnesota. A total of 1,590 kilos of iron ore was mined to make my car. This produced 955 kilos of waste rock which was dumped.

When the ore was made into steel , coke was used. As the coke burns, it produces carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

 

SCRAP: used materials collected to be used again.

FURNACE: a place with very high temperatures used to melt metals.

TOXIC DUST: poisonous dirt.

OPEN PIT MINE: a mine where minerals come from large open holes dug on the surface.

If you DUMP something, you get rid of it as waste.

COKE: a black or grey substance produced from coal that is burned to make heat.

Putting the Car Together:

When my car was assembled, the process used nearly 150,000 litres of water that is more than 100 times the weight of the car.

 

Painting the car:

My car's body was then painted in Detroit, where it was dipped into baths of detergent, zinc phosphate and chromic acid. Next it was submerged in a chemical that pollutes the air, to prepare it for painting. Then it was baked. After that, the car was painted by spraying it six times with a paint that includes PVC solvent.

The waste paint from the spraying process cannot be used again. It was taken to a landfill and buried.

 

SUBMERGE: to go down into a liquid.

PVC: Polyvinyl chloride - a type of plastic

SOLVENT: a liquid that dissolves certain solids

LANDFILL: a place where waste is buried.

The effect on the environment of making my car:

My car is made mostly of steel. Making steel produces more carbon monoxide and hazardous waste than any other industrial process.

Painting is also a very polluting process which releases into the air many smog-producing chemicals.

CARBON MONOXIDE: (CO) a poisonous gas that can come from burning products containing carbon.

SMOG: dirty air caused by smoke from cars and factories

The effect on the environment of using my car:

However, driving my car produces the biggest negative effect on the environment.

I will use my car for about nine years.
During that time, my car will use about eight times more energy than was needed to make it.
The exhaust from my car will add to the exhaust from all the other motor vehicles in the world: this will produce the world's single largest source of the poisonous greenhouse gas, carbon monoxide.

 

 

 

EXHAUST: the gases that come from an engine that is working.

GREENHOUSE GAS: A gas that traps heat and makes the earth warmer.

What should I do?

Do I really need a car?

If the answer is 'yes' then:

  • I should use it as little as possible;
  • Share it as much as possible;
  • And always try to keep this car running, instead of buying a new one.

 

 

 

SHARE: to let someone else use something that belongs to you.

Copyright New Internationalist Magazine 1997, 1998

NI: Global Issues for Learners of English > The Issues > Trash > My car & the environment

Last Modified: 18 Sept 2000