Wahington - General Motors has quit working with a partnership
that collects toxic parts from scrapped cars, jeopardising an
effort to prevent mercury pollution just as hundreds of thousands
of clunkers are headed to recyclers.
Participants in the environmental programme told The Associated
Press the timing of GM's departure could hurt their work. The
government's "cash-for-clunkers" programme will lead
to trade-in and recycling of an estimated 750 000 vehicles,
some of which contain mercury switches.
GM says it's a new company, formed with substantial
government aid in the wake of bankruptcy protection, and is not a
member of the partnership because it doesn't make vehicles with
mercury switches and is not responsible for the older vehicles. The
old company, which is still under bankruptcy court supervision,
says it is reviewing agreements involving the former company and
declined to comment.
Roughly 36 million mercury switches were used in trunk
convenience lights and antilock brakes in vehicles built in the
1980s and 1990s. More than half of them are in GM vehicles built
before 2000.
Mercury released into the air can accumulate in plants, fish and
humans. Children and fetuses are vulnerable to the effects of the
toxic metal, which can damage the development of the nervous
system.
The car industry partnership, called the End of Life Vehicle
Solutions, or ELVS, was created in 2005 to prevent mercury
emissions from being released into the environment when vehicles
are crushed and shredded. It works closely with the National
Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program, which the Environmental
Protection Agency helped form with automakers, the steel industry
and environmentalists in 2006.
'GM not paid its dues'
The programme, which is scheduled to run until 2017, has
recovered 2.5 million switches and disposed of nearly 5 600
pounds (2 540 kilograms) of mercury. General Motors, prior to
its bankruptcy, was the group's largest participant and
informed the partnership of the change last week.
Mary Bills, the partnership's executive director, said GM
has not paid its dues since filing for bankruptcy. Its annual bill
is $700 000 to $1m, a substantial portion of the
programme's funding. Without GM's payments, the
organisation may be forced to scale back or cease operations,
making it more difficult for recyclers to dispose of mercury
recovered under the $3bn "cash-for-clunkers" programme
and other recycled vehicles in the future, she said.
"We're surprised that GM, who wants to have this great,
green image, would do this," Bills said.
General Motors, 60.8% owned by the US government, emerged from
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month under a plan in which
its best-performing assets were sold to form a new company. The
former company, now called Motors Liquidation, is a conglomeration
of GM's liabilities and underperforming assets that remains
under court supervision.
GM spokeswoman Sharon Basel said GM's former entity remains
a member of the partnership. The new automaker, however, "has
never produced vehicles with mercury switches and has no mercury
switch responsibility under the terms of the bankruptcy court
order," Basel said.
Tim Yost, a Motors Liquidation spokesman, declined to comment
about the partnership, saying the old company has been analysing
its nearly 500 000 contracts and agreements, "including
this one."
ELVS manages programs to collect and dispose of the mercury
switches, providing white storage buckets to recyclers to collect
them. Thirteen automakers participate, including Chrysler Group,
Ford Motor and Daimler, and the companies' fees are based on
market share and their portions of the switch population.
Fifteen states require automakers to set up a collection system
to recycle the switches. Most of them also require recyclers to
remove the switches before a vehicle is shredded. Thirty-four
states conduct voluntary programs. Maine has its own programme.
Bills said it was unclear how they would continue service in the
34 states without more funding.
In a letter on Friday, Bills told the 15 states with auto
industry requirements that the ELVS board would "continue to
recycle any GM switches that arrive at our waste contractor in our
collection buckets as long as funds permit." If the
organisation remains unfunded for the GM costs, "we will no
longer be able to accept GM switches for recycling," she
wrote.
-AP
|