The company says even though Mercedes-Benz production went up nearly 80 percent from 1992 to 1998 and production at the former Chrysler Corporation went up more than 40 percent, emissions decreased substantially. Do you know what substantially means? Exactly what kinds of emissions decreased? Decreased from what to what? Did all types of emissions decrease equally? Did any go up?
The example given is that sulfur dioxide was down more than 50 percent company-wide, as were substances listed in the U.S. Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). Down 50 percent from what to what? Fifty gallons to 25 gallons isn't the same as 256 million gallons to 128 million because the latter still seems to be a lot. There are many substances listed in the TRI. How many and what kind are we talking about?
At a site in Detroit, the company says it has "had major successes with decontamination and remediation." What are major successes and what kind of remediation? What were the substances?
The company gives us a better feel for what's going on at its plant in Düsseldorf, German, where a one-year-old paint recycling process reduces waste (by 50 metric tons) and disposal costs while lowering the costs (by 12 percent) of buying paint products (30 metric tons less paint). By reducing waste, the company doesn't have to pay as much for disposal and doesn't need as much paint in the first place since it is using what it has more efficiently. In a separate press release the company says it has "succeeded in completely recycling and reusing vehicle paint material. The paint particles that land beside the body as overspray during the application of the second coat are reprocessed and used for painting the bodies of the Mercedes-Benz van called Sprinter." The Düsseldorf plant still has another paint line to apply the process to.
In Detroit, DaimlerChrysler Corporation has redeveloped an abandoned, contaminated, 83-year-old, 34-acre Mack Avenue Engine Plant. Eight hundred workers are employed now and a second plant due to open next year will bring employment up to 2,000. The company says it spent more than nine years and more than $1.6 billion cleaning up asbestos-containing materials, polychlorinated biphenyls spilled from vandalized electrical transformers, contaminated oil spread about by "rogue salvagers," "massive (exposed) pits filled with water, debris and impacted oil," "enough scrap metal to build 20,000 cars."
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