Scrap and Your Car
When you drive to work or to pick up your kids, you are doing so thanks to steel. After the first steel-made automobile was introduced in 1916, steel became the standard with which we make cars. The car’s structure and safety cage is steel, the seat belt buckles are made of steel and there is even a steel beam placed inside your car door to better protect passengers in the event of a side-impact collision. In any car accident, the steel door latches placed in modern cars will help to keep the doors closed and hopefully prevent driver and passengers from being thrown from the vehicle.
Photo: The 30 Tourer made by Dodge in 1918 was the first series production car to have all-steel bodywork
Recycling an old car is just as important as buying a new one. In 2006 the steel industry recycled enough old cars to produce nearly 13.5 million new ones. In North America alone more than 14 million old cars were recycled allowing them to be repurposed. In fact, one scrapped car can produce more than four steel utility poles. Still want to keep that old clunker in the garage?