Scrappage is rubbish

By Anna Heywood on Apr 23, 09 07:49 AM

I am still trying to work out if the scrappage scheme is supposed to be a green one.
I hope not, otherwise it is the biggest load of Greenwash I have heard in recent times.

I am in today's Journal saying that, environmentally, the scheme is a bit of a 'Red Herring'.
I actually said a lot more than that but the Journal is not large enough to print all my ramblings!

So what is wrong with the scrappage scheme you may wonder; quite a lot in my opinion.

Lets start with the fact that I don't think uptake will be that great.
Manufacturers are being asked to stump up half of the ÃÂ£2000 grant.
My inside sources tell me that they are very unhappy about this and allegedly don't have the money (although I'm not sure I believe that bit).

The scheme seems to be advocated on two fronts; firstly that it will help with jobs and secondly that it will help the environment by car users buying new energy efficient models.

In terms of jobs; the huge stockpile of cars that they will try and get rid of have already been made. This will not create extra jobs.

10 years is not that old for a car. It would have been far better to fund retro-fit schemes to cars to make them more energy efficient.
This is a very labour intensive process and would have created more jobs.

On the environment:
Germany tried this and the evidence showed that consumers used the extra money to 'buy up' to a larger car, not purchase the latest Smart car.

15% of the car's energy is in its manufacture.
As mentioned 10 years is not that old, in fact my own car is almost 10 years old and is still going fine. I have no intention of scrapping it. Getting rid of it early just increases the percentage of energy that goes into manufacture plus the car, tyres etc needs to be disposed of. Waste waste waste.

On both alleged objectives of the scheme, I think it will fail.

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2 Comments

Barry Sayers said:

I think the car scrappage scheme is a complete waste of money and resources. It will consign many perfectly useable and Ã¢ÂÂcleanÃ¢ÂÂ cars to the dustbin. The motor industry will support it because they can continue to make a similar (certainly not 'green')product that people donÃ¢ÂÂt really need or actually want. All cars over 10 years old are now conveniently being labelled Ã¢ÂÂbangers, gas guzzlers or rust bucketsÃ¢ÂÂ to justify this scheme which has nothing to do with helping the environment. Whatever happened to looking after things and being carefull with money? It cannot be good to throw something away just so someone can make a new one.

April 24, 2009 2:46 PM

Paeg said:

Allusions to "Doorway into Summer" aside, what even happens to the old car? just crushed up and left in a landfill to rust? no mention of material recycling, etc that I've seen.

May 23, 2009 9:42 AM

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