Thank you to Cardis/GM recycles parts of Gulf Oil spill into Volt

Renewable Now, thanks to our sponsor, Cardi's Furniture, was featured on a regional morning show yesterday, the Rhode Show.  You will be seeing a lot more of Renewable Now on TV, print and listening to us on radio.

Some positive news from EcoGeek this morning on the cradle-to-crave tail end of the tragedy in the Gulf.  GM is taking 227 miles of oil-soaked plastic booms, used to clean up the spill, and building Volts with them.  Here's the link:  http://www.ecogeek.org/automobiles/3514.

Article: " A majority of the miles upon miles of plastic oil booms deployed to soak up the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill have ended up either in landfills or are destined to be burned for fuel.  GM has come up with a way to keep a large chunk of those booms from that same fate by recycling the material into parts for the Chevy Volt.

GM will turn a total of 227 miles worth of oil booms into material for the Volt's air-deflecting baffles that surround the radiator.  A centrifuge spins the used booms to release the oil and the plastic material is then processed and remolded to be used in the air deflectors.  The program will divert 212,500 pounds of boom waste from landfills.

The air deflectors are made of all recycled materials, including the booms, recycled tires from a GM test facility, recycled packaging plastic from a GM plant and post-consumer recycled plastic."

So, on the business side of green, we turn a liability, a huge liability, into a partial asset.  That is great management of resources, great innovation, a testimony to what a creative team, in this case at GM, can do to innovate their processes.  As importantly, the last paragraph describes Volt's assumption of all recycled material, including old tires, into their booms.

Wonderful job, GM, of reducing material costs and helping to clean the earth and rid ourselves of part of our ugly failures.  Can we do more of this?  Please let us know if your company has a similar story to share.

Coming up soon on Renewable Now is a show, with Al Cerrone, profiling the innovative Volt, and the major changes instituted at GM post-bankruptcy.  Al does a great job, with a great sense of humor, of covering the story.  We look forward to having you there.