Not a car in the world
Posted 17 March, 2008 in Carbon offsetting, Footprint reduction
Traditional carbon offsetting schemes not hard enough for you? OK, give your car keys to www.carlesscarbon.com. The non-profit internet start-up will drive your old, polluting banger to the scrapyard, pick it over for recyclable parts, then throw the rusting carcass in the crusher. Voila. One less car on the road. And if you pledge to remain car free, they’ll even give you a year’s public transport travel pass.
This breathtakingly direct approach to carbon offsetting is the brainchild of Richard Hamje, who started the operation in earnest this year. “I saw many sites saying ‘it is equivalent to taking x number of cars off the road’ and I thought why not just take the cars off the road directly?” he told eighteenpercentcarbon.com.
Visitors to the site can buy carbon offsets to the tune of 30 USD per ton. When sufficient funds have accumulated, Richard will purchase a clapped out rustbucket and take it to the crusher. And that’s where the more adventurous visitors are important: they’re the ones offering their cars for sale.
“We specifically target old gas-guzzlers like pickup trucks, SUVs and minivans,” says Hamje, noting that older, higher mileage cars were also cheaper to buy. The price offered is calculated on the basis of expected remaining carbon emissions, at the standard 30 USD per ton rate.
carlesscarbon.com has lofty ambitions. The plan is to crush 100,000 cars by 2013, eliminating an estimated 1,000,000 metric tons of carbon by doing so, and to help 200,000 people stop driving forever. Progress so far: 25 tons of carbon emissions reduced with one car crushed (you can see the video of this at the website). No one has yet been persuaded to give up driving.
It’s a long game.
