The man on the loudspeaker yells, “Look Out!,” as two school buses cross paths in a near collision in Flat Rock, Michigan. Children scream in delight, and the adults cheer along as amused bystanders. On this Friday night, these school buses are making their final rounds upon the end of their lifecycle.
The School Bus Figure Eight Demolition Derby is the last event of the night at Flat Rock Speedway, which draws a sell-out crowd when the buses race. The aged fleet is the center of a profitable venture fueled by admission fees, concession stands, beer sales, business sponsorships and scrap metal.
“It’s controlled mayhem,” said Scott Schultz, manager of Flat Rock Speedway and Toledo Speedway in Ohio.
Race teams working for the tracks prepare buses ahead of time by removing windows and installing special racing lap belts for the drivers. They’re trained to hit and tip over competitors at high speeds on a Figure 8 track.
“The goal is to get the last bus standing,” said Schultz, who once worked as transportation director for Dundee Public Schools in Michigan. When the race is over the buses are sold to local scrap yards, which recycle the metal and interior components for their next use.
At the Far End of Sustainability
The speedways and scrap yards are part of supply chain working at the far end of the school bus market, which is contributing to sustainability by recycling red-tagged vehicles.
Buses in education fleets retire after 10 to 12 years of use, on average, 890-=and many out-of-service vehicles get another life in a number of secondary uses. Cardinal Bus Sales and Service in Lima, Ohio not only sells used vehicles to racing teams, it serves buyers who want to use school buses as motorhomes, church buses and hog haulers.
Scrap Metals Recycling in Tucson, Arizona regularly buys out-of-service school buses, even though steel prices have been lower than in previous years. Cardinal Bus Sales also takes apart unusable buses to salvage components for its used parts business or sell the whole bus to metal scrap yards.
“We have very solid recycling outlets for all of the different metals. Unfortunately, we still have not found solid outlets for the glass or foam,” said Cardinal Bus Sales Manager Tony Rumer.
End-of-life vehicles are more than 95 percent recoverable, theoretically. In practice, however, the cost in energy and labor to recover the final fractions often exceeds the value of the materials. Foam and other nonmetal vehicle materials end up being shredded and sent to landfills.
Prices for scrap metal and materials fluctuate with economic pressures. Currently, aluminum is among the highest priced metals. Steel scrap metal has been as high as $250 per ton in pre-recession 2008. Today, steel goes for about $45 per ton, according to Roger McCrone, owner of Scrap Metals Recycling in Tucson, Arizona.
“I’ve taken short school buses that are over three tons and the long ones about seven tons,” said McCrone who regularly buys school bus metal.
Front-End Planning for Sustainable Vehicles
Automotive OEMs are taking note and stepping up their own efforts to improve sustainability at all ends of the vehicle lifecycle.
Ford has participated in research into alternative treatments for end-of-life vehicles, as explained in its annual sustainability report.
End-of-life recycling has been planned for the 2015 Ford Aluminum. In place of steel, the metal serves well in vehicle weight reduction for efficiency, and aluminum is a highly recyclable metal. Aluminum metal scrap from production in the plant is collected, cleaned and sent back to the aluminum plant. When end-of-life comes around, the metal can be scrapped again to close the sustainability loop.
According to Thomas Built Buses, it is the first school bus manufacturer to achieve Zero-Waste-to-Landfill in its production operations, an effort that demonstrates the company’s pledge for sustainability. Thomas employee teams identified the best options for reducing waste and recycling each material.
The company also selects recyclable metals for a lighter vehicle. For example, the Type-A Minotour model has aluminum side panels. Additionally, school buses have an extensive list of recyclable content, including batteries, steel, wiring, plastic and tires.
