Never Green: Does My Car Decompose? Leather Seats Last For 50 Years; Don't Ask About Windshields by Gary Hoffman | AOL Autos Posted: 16 April 2009 A few things will be obvious to the archaeologist who chances upon your car in their excavations of some long-forgotten junkyard centuries from now: Plastics are eternal and metals return to dust. On an historical time scale, the very soul of your car -- its engines, chassis and sheet metal -- are gone before you know it. In the recent book, "World Without Us," author Alan Weisman documents what would happen to the structures of civilization if humans suddenly disappeared. Whatever the grandeur of their architecture, buildings collapse, trees grow out of the cracks in the streets and sidewalk, and concrete crumbles. Cars face the same fate, or at least parts of them. The sheet metal would be among the first to go, reducing the vehicle's smooth exterior and flowing lines to wisps of iron oxides and robbing the vehicle of its most durable emotional connection to drivers -- its design. Anyone who has ever seen a rural automotive graveyard can attest to the harsh treatment that the elements mete out to cars. You can still find intact sheet metal on cars 50 years old, but if they are much older than that you are lucky to even see its outline. Other parts -- the plastics -- are built to last, as the saying goes, although not in the sense that automakers intend in their commercials. To an Indiana Jones of the future, the remains of your car would look mostly like an assortment of incomprehensible plastic parts strewn across the stratum associated with our century. Envision a museum with a first-rate collection of polycarbonate headlamps and taillights, polyvinylchloride dashboards, and skinless polyurethane cushions (The consensus is that most plastics will last up to 1,000 years). And with CD-ROM images probably lasting no more than 200 years in the world's data libraries, he might have a pretty hard time even looking up what the rest of the car was like. Here is a look at seven common car parts and how long they would last if they -- like perhaps as many as one in twenty cars today -- aren't recycled properly and are allowed to return to nature. 1 to 3 Years: Steel Head Gasket 40 to 50 years: Seat leather 50 to 80 Years: Tires 60 to 80 Years: Sheet Metal 500 to 1,000 Years: Aluminum Engine Blocks At least 1,000 Years: Seat Cushions 1 Million Years: Windshields |
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A head gasket is roughly a millimeter thick and
consists of a narrow, almost flimsy web-like
framework, making it a superb candidate for
oxidation. So expect it to corrode in short order.
Conditions are apt to be worse if it is buried --
thanks to high moisture content, acidity and
dissolved salts in the soil.
consists of a narrow, almost flimsy web-like
framework, making it a superb candidate for
oxidation. So expect it to corrode in short order.
Conditions are apt to be worse if it is buried --
thanks to high moisture content, acidity and
dissolved salts in the soil.
Automotive leather is an organic material that
decomposes naturally for the most part, although it
goes through a chromium tanning process to extend
its life. Without tanning, leather would disappear in
about 250 days if it were buried in the earth. Leather
shoes, by the way, have been found in landfill
decades after they were thrown away, although you
might find the rubber soles nearly intact a couple
decades later.
decomposes naturally for the most part, although it
goes through a chromium tanning process to extend
its life. Without tanning, leather would disappear in
about 250 days if it were buried in the earth. Leather
shoes, by the way, have been found in landfill
decades after they were thrown away, although you
might find the rubber soles nearly intact a couple
decades later.
Tires are made from rubber that is vulcanized, or
cured with high heat. The material decomposes
naturally; like leather, it is one of the few car
components that microbes attack. And once the
rubber is gone, oxidation makes short work of the
steel belts. On rare occasions, when immense
numbers of tires are collected in landfills, vulcanized
rubber has the disconcerting capacity to
spontaneously burn.
cured with high heat. The material decomposes
naturally; like leather, it is one of the few car
components that microbes attack. And once the
rubber is gone, oxidation makes short work of the
steel belts. On rare occasions, when immense
numbers of tires are collected in landfills, vulcanized
rubber has the disconcerting capacity to
spontaneously burn.
Once the paint is gone, corrosion will go to work on
the exposed steel, roughly 1 mm thick. Iron rust is
porous, exposing the metal below to still more
corrosion. And the steel is gone. If you were to
drive around the country looking at junked cars, it's
not hard to find mostly intact sheet metal on cars
from the '60s and '70s, especially in desert
conditions. But little will be left of the car bodies
from vehicles 50 to 80 years old.
the exposed steel, roughly 1 mm thick. Iron rust is
porous, exposing the metal below to still more
corrosion. And the steel is gone. If you were to
drive around the country looking at junked cars, it's
not hard to find mostly intact sheet metal on cars
from the '60s and '70s, especially in desert
conditions. But little will be left of the car bodies
from vehicles 50 to 80 years old.
Aluminum has become the metal of
choice for engine blocks due to its
lightweight and its durability. An
oxide forms a barrier around the
aluminum, protecting it during its
normal lifetime. But it can become
pitted from salt air or other
exposures and it breaks down
quickly in an environment full of
alkalis, including hydroxides and
carbonates. An aluminum part in a
limestone environment, for
example, would break down a few
decades.
choice for engine blocks due to its
lightweight and its durability. An
oxide forms a barrier around the
aluminum, protecting it during its
normal lifetime. But it can become
pitted from salt air or other
exposures and it breaks down
quickly in an environment full of
alkalis, including hydroxides and
carbonates. An aluminum part in a
limestone environment, for
example, would break down a few
decades.
The vinyl may crack and the
leather may rot but the
polyurethane interiors of your seat
cushions will last nearly forever. No
one is really sure how long the
foam lasts, but one recent test
showed no degradation
whatsoever in a 700 day test in
landfill conditions. On the plus side,
at least two species of bacteria are
known to attack polyurethane,
presuming they can find their way
to it amid all the other materials in
your local landfill.
leather may rot but the
polyurethane interiors of your seat
cushions will last nearly forever. No
one is really sure how long the
foam lasts, but one recent test
showed no degradation
whatsoever in a 700 day test in
landfill conditions. On the plus side,
at least two species of bacteria are
known to attack polyurethane,
presuming they can find their way
to it amid all the other materials in
your local landfill.
That's the figure that the figure
that the U.S. Park Service uses for
glass objects, and some experts in
waste management think that is an
understatement. Theoretically,
glass lasts forever, and it would
take eons of geological action to
grind it into anything resembling
the sand, or silica, that it comes
from.
that the U.S. Park Service uses for
glass objects, and some experts in
waste management think that is an
understatement. Theoretically,
glass lasts forever, and it would
take eons of geological action to
grind it into anything resembling
the sand, or silica, that it comes
from.
Do the Earth Proud! Recycle your old or unwanted vehicles today!
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