Scrapping more than 311,000 dilapidated vehicles has reduced fuel consumption by 400 million liters in the present Iranian calendar year (March 2014-2015), managing director of Transportation and Fuel Management Organization said.
"Close to 350,000 vehicles are destined for the junkyard by the yearend (March 20)," Alireza Feyz-Bakhsh said on the sidelines of the latest ceremony for scrapping the heavy gas-guzzlers. "This means almost 22-fold decrease in air pollution." The ceremony was attended by Vice-President Mohammad Shariatmadari, and head of the Environmental Protection Organization (DoI) Masoumeh Ebtekar, Shana news agency said in a report. The disposal of old cars has saved approximately $378 million in social and economic costs and $120 million in subsidized gasoline. Under a five-year plan launched in December 2010, and promoted as an “economic revolution” by former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran cut three-decade-old subsidies on food and energy replacing them with cash payments.
According to a law ratified in October 2013 for scrapping old vehicles, four cars must be scrapped for every imported vehicle.
According to the ministry of transport and urban development, automobile use in Iran has doubled in the past eight years, and a million cars on the roads are more than 20 years old. In addition, more than 1.5 million automobiles have been scrapped over the past decade, according to the Iran Fuel Conservation Organization.
Feyz-Bakhsh said the process of scrapping old vehicles got momentum under the present administration, and stressed that one-fourth of old vehicles across the country have been scrapped. "The number of old cars [in the streets] should be close to zero by the next 6-7 years."
The official added that junked cars were reduced to 300,000 tons of steel. Process of scrapping cars and recycling steel saves energy and natural resources. The global steel industry annually saves enough energy to power about 18 million households a year. Recycling metal also uses about 74 percent less energy than making metal.
