REUSING OR RECYCLING?

Just read your Editorial in the October Classics. [On the potential threat to classic car use on environmental grounds – Ed] This is a subject that has been troubling me, and many others I am sure in the classic car community.

My wife and I are die-hard petrolheads. We don’t have children, but own four cars, only one of which is a modern. But when I don’t have my spare-time hands on my spanners, I am filling our many bird feeders or walking in our lovely countryside. I don’t see these as incompatible, but to an extent I must acknowledge that the one is to the detriment of the other. And globally, I have to accept that our hobby is contributing to the problems affecting our planet.

So I am with you:

Reduce – yes, if you have a modern, save your classics for the journeys that count. But if you only own a classic, you are a good person who is by definition reusing and recycling every time you turn the key and I salute you!

Reuse – yes, but not nylocs!

Recycle – OK, you argue that it isn’t as green as it should be, and in daily life you are right, but in the world of classic cars there is a different context. Secondhand or reconditioned parts keep our hobby alive. I had a four-core radiator that went through two of my Minis and has now been gifted to another local enthusiast. It’s still going now, some 35 years after I traded in its ruined predecessor. His 1275 GT also has my old gearbox. You might categorise this last under the reuse heading, but what is reusing if not recycling?

Doug McLeod

Thanks for sharing those thoughts, Doug. And yes, I would categorise the last one as reusing; my point about recycling was that a lot of energy is required and considerable waste and pollution created in turning one thing into another – Ed