A Unique Recycling Program At GM
General Motors has found an interesting use for the booms that were used to clean up the big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. They are recycling them and using them as plastic parts in the Chevy Volt extended range electric vehicle.
"We're able to do something that we think makes a difference overall," said Mike Robinson, GM vice president of Environment, Energy and Safety policy. "It doesn't cost us anything extra and it doesn't cost our customers anything extra."
The waste oil is removed using a centrifuge. The plastic in the booms is then used as air deflectors and other parts that go under the hood of the Chevrolet Volt.
GM will have enough material to cover the first production run of the Volt, and could even use it for plastic parts in other vehicles.
"They would have ended up in a landfill, and they would have been there a hundred years before they began to decompose and break down," said Robinson, who told WWJ AutoBeat Reporter Jeff Gilbert that the idea came from a GM worker.
General Motors has been using the Chevrolet Volt to establish it's green credibility. The first Volt was delivered to a customer in New Jersey last week.
