Of the 20 million personal vehicles in use in Canada, nearly five million are model year 1995 and earlier. The average lifespan of a vehicle in the 1960s was about 162,000 km. Now, the lifespan is nearly 225,000 km (Automotive Industries Association of Canada, 2005). This means that Canadians today are keeping their cars on the road for years longer than they used to.

This is a problem because vehicles manufactured in 1995 and earlier are typically less fuel-efficient and lack the latest technology for reducing air-polluting emissions. Across Canada, tailpipe emissions alone make cars, trucks and buses the major sources of smog pollution, especially in densely populated urban areas.

Today, vehicles are designed to higher environmental standards and increasingly stricter vehicle emission regulations. These changes have lead to the development and improvement of technologies like the catalytic converter, designed to reduce emissions that contribute to pollution and smog.

While this is good news, total emissions are expected to increase because of the growing number of vehicles on the road. This is where Retire Your Ride comes in. We offer vehicle owners an easy, free and rewarding option to get their vehicles off the road and have them recycled in a responsible way. We will keep cars out of landfills and dangerous toxins from being released into our air, ground and water.

Did you know that 75% of an average car's content by weight can be recycled?

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• Here are just a few ways to reduce your environmental impact.

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