Column: July 2007

ENERGY SAVERS   Recycling everything

By Sarah E. Moran

How dealers can get their shops in shape.

Tires to go: Put that old rubber to use.

Rich Burd of Burd Ford, Indianapolis, Ind., used to pay an outside company a dollar per tire to take tires away, presumably to a landfill to become an eyesore and potential fire hazard. Now, a recycler pays Burd five cents per tire to cart tires away and chop them into bits for resale as “crumb rubber,” used as cushioning for playgrounds and often dyed in bright colors.

Alex Thayer, Ralph Thayer Automotive, Monroe, Mich., is looking at a tire-recycling process where the rubber would be used to repave roads.

WASTE NOT YOUR WASTE OIL
Other dealers are recycling used oil for heat, which has several green advantages beyond reducing heating bills, says NADA environment, health, and safety director Douglas Greenhaus. For one thing, burning waste oil avoids off-site liability and the cost of hauling it away, which dealer Lewis Stoms has to do at Bare Truck Center, Westminster, Md., during the warm months.

But when the mercury falls, Stoms heats his shop with waste oil. “I don’t want to [always] have to be on top of the guys for keeping the shop too warm,” he says.

In Indiana, dealer Burd wants to retrofit his new 30,000-square-foot service department with two waste-oil burners since “the service area is the biggest place and the hardest to keep warm.”

But for sending waste off-site, always hire bonded and insured contractors, advises Greenhaus, and check state authorities for violations—environmental and otherwise.

OTHER ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY MOVES
In addition to recycling the usual oil, solvents, and other shop wastes, Burd Ford recycles cardboard, wood pallets, shrink-wrap, and other packaging, 90 percent of it coming from service and parts.

And techs at Downtown Honda, Spokane, always use biodegradable soaps and cleaners when they clean bays, says dealer Steve Coombs.

PAINTING LESSONS
For handling body-shop paint and sprayers, NADA environment, health, and safety director Douglas Greenhaus offers these pointers:
• Mix no more paint than you think you’ll need.
• When cleaning spray guns, use no more solvent than necessary.
• Employ enclosed gun washers to prevent vaporized paint and solvents from sullying the air.
• Distill used solvent into a “decent second-generation cleaner.”