Tag Archives: driving green

Do you recycle your car battery when it’s time?

recycling car battery

Here at Freeman Grapevine, we like to think of ourselves hyper-concious about the any “footprints” our Dallas Buick dealership can potentially leave on our environment.  Take your car battery, for example. When most green-minded folks think about being stewards of our planet, they’re more likely to have visions of planting trees and cleaning  streams than pondering their car battery’s place in the universe. Understandable…there’s a lot you may not know about your new car’s battery.

First, your new car’s battery is highly toxic, being made up primarily of lead,  acid, and plastic. But the good news is they’re also highly recyclable,  and old ones usually end up getting turned into more batteries.

According to the industry trade group Battery Council International:

More than 97 percent of all used battery lead is recycled into new  batteries. When compared to the 55 percent of aluminum soft drink and  beer cans, 45 percent of newspapers, and 26 percent of glass bottles  that BCI says get recycled, batteries start looking pretty green. In  fact, lead-acid batteries top the list of  recycled consumer products.

In addition to recycling the lead, the plastic cases are melted down  and used to make new ones. The acid, they say, can even get turned into  sodium sulfate, a powder used in glass, detergents, and textiles.  Alternatively, some recyclers neutralize the acid, turn it into water,  and release it into the public sewer system once it is cleaned and  tested.

While that last part may sound a little scary, it’s still better than  batteries ending up in a landfill, an incinerator, or by the side of  the road.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWvZ4BA_ylg

The BCI Web site lists 44 states that prohibit disposing of old  car batteries in landfills and incinerators. Nearly 40 of those states  also require retailers and distributors to collect used batteries from  consumers for recycling. (Go to www.batterycouncil.org to see the details for your state.)

When shopping, your best bet is to find a Dallas Car dealer that will install  your new one for free and recycle the old one for you. If there’s a  charge for installation, make sure to find out what it is before making a  purchase.

Recycle, recycle , recycle…If you want any more info, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or give me a call.

Fort Worth & Dallas: FIX YOUR POTHOLES

Hey, it happens even to the best of us here at Freeman Grapevine. You’re driving along, focusing on the road ahead, and you might not even notice the huge hole in the road…until you drive over it.

Bam, you just hit a pothole. It might have sloshed your coffee, or made your CD player skip. You quietly curse the pothole and you might even shake an angry fist in the rear view mirror, but then you just go about your day. What you might not know is, driving over potholes can cause serious damage to your car.

First off, what exactly is a pothole? Well, as roadways freeze and thaw, some of the water erodes the dirt beneath the surface of the road. Then the asphalt will start to crack and chip away. This leads to small holes in the road, and they will eventually turn into potholes.

How can potholes affect you? Well, you could notice immediate damage via a flat tire or long-term damage could start to affect your alignment and steering. Pothole damage accounts for about 500,000 insurance claims every year, so you should look for any signs of damage as soon as possible.

If you have aluminum rims, they might become bent or warped if you hit too many potholes, and they just can’t withstand the impact that older, steel rims can. If you hit a deep pothole, it could chip away some of the rust proofing on the undercarriage of you car, and you will want to get that repaired as quickly as possible.

The biggest problem will have an effect on your steering and shocks. If you notice that your car starts to pull in one direction or the other when you let go of the steering wheel, your alignment is probably off. If you notice that your drive is becoming a little rougher and you can feel every little bump in the road, those potholes might have messed up your shock springs.

Let me know if you have any funny or nightmarish pothole stories, and I might include them in a future blog post! Of course, if that pothole has left you with any of the issues I mentioned above, then feel free to bring it into Freeman Grapevine so we can take a look.