The Chevy Volt Is Made Out Of Contaminated Garbage

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Good thing it’s t he kind of contaminated garbage that heals the wounds of a planet and nation, yes? GM insists that contaminated oil booms used in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup wouldn’t have been recycled by anyone else and that, according to John Bradburn, manager of GM’s waste-reduction efforts

This was purely a matter of helping out. If sent to a landfill, these materials would have taken hundreds of years to begin to break down, and we didn’t want to see the spill further impact the environment. We knew we could identify a beneficial reuse of this material given our experience.

Possibly even more importantly, all that bad British Petroleum PR would have just sat there bumming people out about the impacts of oil dependence. Thank goodness GM’s PR team had the experience to break it down, clean it off and transform it into good PR about the semi-petroleum-independent Chevy Volt.


Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Ian Anderson Ian Anderson on Dec 21, 2010

    Recycling is a win-win, not a complete GM/EPA cluster$^#@ as indicated by the headline. The oil and plastic would have been recycled/used anyhow, no way is that stuff headed to a typical landfill. And some materials are easier/cheaper/safer to recycle anyways, like aluminum and steel. You don't call the front fender in a new Audi contaminated trash because it's made from a soda can I coughed on do you?

  • Robandcindy Aucoin Robandcindy Aucoin on Dec 21, 2010

    You never know, these may become very collectable, if they only have the material for a limited amount, imagine the future Ebay listing…….rare original Chevy Volt with the garbage interior….oh wait…….

  • Dan Dan on Dec 21, 2010

    Green is the 21st century's substitute for God and this kind of marketing reminds me of Robert Tilton.

  • Adamatari Adamatari on Dec 21, 2010

    This is great! Now if only they could scrape the oil from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and put that in there too... We may not hear about the Deepwater Horizon disaster anymore, but the oil didn't all just disappear. At least some of the spilled oil is being put to good use. Good for GM. As for "contaminated garbage"? Landfill mining already exists, which can recover metals and plastics that can be recycled (often there is more metal, especially aluminum, in landfills than in ore). I for one welcome this.

    • See 4 previous
    • Rob Finfrock Rob Finfrock on Dec 21, 2010

      "Oil floats, it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the gulf. Oil that is collected from the top of the ocean is being harvested, refined and sold. Not that I am a BP fan, just want you to get the facts straight." Ahem. Wow, the things you learn... As someone recently called out by Steve-O on another thread for not getting his "facts" straight, I have to say this extremely ignorant comment fills me with cheer. No, wait, that's Christmas. No cookie for you. And the Cruze still sucks.

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