Used trailers: More righteous than new?

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by MrUKToad

Buying used is recycling in the best tradition and is to be encouraged, but buying new is essential to feed the used market; someone has to do it. If you're going to have a trailer at all, Airstreams are quite green, what with their longevity and their relatively aerodynamic properties.

Of course, if you keep your towing speed down and use your on-board systems (A/C!) sparingly that'll go a long way to reducing your environmental footprint. You could also try a smaller, more fuel efficient tow vehicle, but maybe that's a bit too radical?

I would have less problem with new purchases to feed the used market...if the new stuff was quality and would last. Unfortunately in the race to maximize profits by corporations the used market has become cluttered with non repairable goods that have to be tossed due to no repair parts, as well as no way to get into them to repair them. We have become a society hooked on disposable everything as well as having to drive an economy with consumerism.

I have a 3 speed bike that is over 40 years old, has been ridden in excess of 30,000 miles. I still ride it, I can still get repair parts for it. I bought a nice new 7 speed bike in 2006, the hub recently broke...no repair parts available, throw the hub out and buy a new one A replacement hub was going to cost about half of what the bike did new...

Aaron

[Ag&Au]

As soon as you drive the new trailer off the lot, it instantly becomes a used trailer, thus loosing all the environmental baggage of a new trailer.

Ken

[dirigible25]

For what it's worth, in the environmental world there are the 3 R's Recycle, Reuse, and Repurpose. One thing great about aluminum is that it is nearly infinitely recyclable. i don't know the recycle content of the materials AS uses for their new trailers, but I'll bet it is fairly high whether they know it or not. If we're going to go RVing with a trailer, all the good reasons I have read, such as drag or coeffient of friction, etc. are all good reasons. I also agree that one can rationalize all they want about what ever they are in to, but the bottom line most every human activity has an impact that can be viewed as negative for the environment. If you believe all the hype about carbon dioxide being a green house gas, stop breathing because that is exactly what is emitted each time you exhale! Just go on-line and you can find hundreds of calculators to show you just how big your carbon footprint is. If you take this seriously there are probably a lot of things you can do to offset your carbon footprint, but as for me, not using my AS isn't one of them.

[TG Twinkie]

I don't know how much energy it takes to make the new carbon fiber materials . But having worked in the aluminum can business for 35 years. It takes a lot of energy to recycle aluminum and even more to make virgin material.
I do recycle, just to keep the material out of the landfill. But I'm not convinced that energy is saved by recycling. When you include the energy involved to haul the material to a recycling center. In my case 60 miles round trip. Then the energy required to get the material to a processing facility. Virgin aluminum contains Boxite which as far as I know today is shipped in from South America. Most of the aluminum in North America comes from 3 sources. ALCOA aluminum co. Of America; ALCAN aluminum co. Of Canada; or Reynolds Aluminum, there is also Kaiser Aluminum. Not sure either of the last 2 are still in business.
I don't know how much of the aluminum in an AS is recycled or what the ratio of recycled material is mixed with virgin material in the different alloys of aluminum.
I didn't buy my trailer to save the planet. I bought it to enjoy the planet. I do feel better knowing that it could be around for another 30 or 40 years. Which means a new one won't have to be built to replace it. That's a good thing. Maybe that's what will save the planet.

[genearnold]

I'm very concerned about litter, pollution, etc. because I don't like to see our beautiful earth trashed (we're serious recyclers). I remember seeing awful stuff in the rivers and elsewhere when I was growing up in Wyoming and Colorado I lived a while in Glenrock, Wyoming in the mid-1940s. When I was nine years old I was baptized in the North Platte river between Casper and Glenrock. Two things about that holy occasion linger in my mind; 1) in early may during the snow melt, that river is cold! 2) there was a significant oil slick on the water due to refineries that discharged waste in the water. #1 is nature doing her thing, but #2 was done by ignorant and/or greedy people who seemed to think it was OK to send the stuff down the river where they didn't have to deal with it. I do have to say this is not common today.

I buy much of what I use, including cars, trucks, and my trailers, used. Am I green? I don't know, but I have a lot more green left in my bank account!

Gene

[cojer]

if you're truly concerned about being environmentally conscience, you would find a place to go park your trailer (old or new) and leave it there. then everytime you want to go camping, strap on a backpack full of supplies and walk up to where you parked it and "camp" or the super righteous approach would be you wouldn't own one at all.

like kermit the frog says...it's not easy being green

and trying to conform to boulder standards! well....good luck with that.

so many cyclists so little time

[ROBERT CROSS]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Aluminium recycling…………..75% of all aluminum produced since 1888 is still in use today.

Recycling aluminium uses about 5% of the energy required to create aluminium from bauxite, because the latter requires a lot of electrical energy to electrolyse aluminium oxide into aluminium.


Streaming, I do it guilt free....

Bob

[tphan]

Interesting facts and figures. Brand new or vintage, I'm happy to have one!

[InsideOut]

I like to think our polished Airstream is "greener" than a white box...it reflects the nature around us when we are camping, whereas the swoopy-colored-graphic-decal-SOBs stick out like a sore thumb in the forest.

As a matter of fact, the places swoopy-colored-graphic-decal-SOBs blend in with their environment (in a sea of other swoopy-colored-graphic-decal-SOBs!) are not among my first choices for camping spots ~

Shari

[webspinner]

One of my considerations in choosing to go with an Airstream is that the body would never end up in a landfill. Used or new, any Airstream is greener from that standpoint.

[GetOutDoors]

I am wondering: are we defining righteous as something that is environment friendly?

If so , then this is kind of a new religion?

[Ag&Au]

This thread has caused me to recall the 2010 South Park episode "Smug Alert".

Thanks for the chuckles

The examples are different, but the theme is the same.

Ken

Here it is: ( you have to suffer through a few lead-in commercials.)

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full...e02-smug-alert

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by GetOutDoors

I am wondering: are we defining righteous as something that is environment friendly?

If so , then this is kind of a new religion?

GOD....

I'll follow you anywhere.....


Bob

[MrUKToad]

Originally Posted by wahoonc

Unfortunately in the race to maximize profits by corporations the used market has become cluttered with non repairable goods that have to be tossed due to no repair parts, as well as no way to get into them to repair them.

Aaron

I'd agree, Aaron; mass production is all about reducing costs and maximising profits and it does mean, sadly, that companies like Airstream always look to get cheaper and cheaper parts and materials in order to stay viable and to turn a profit. Things are becoming more disposable, it's a fact, whether we like it or not and for the most part the environment suffers as a result as people toss things that might otherwise have been reused.

As others have said, if you're going to go camping in a travel trailer at all, having an Airstream has a lesser impact on the environment in the long run than having an SOB. Now, whether going camping is an environmentally friendly thing to do in the wider scheme of things is an entirely different question. It's better, I think, for me to tow my Airstream to Florida than for my family to fly there; I wish had some figures to back that up!

Guilt free camping, eh?

[robwok]

We dont really have influence in the manufacturing process. I guess an all wood, untreated trailer would be the most green, but you'd have to build a new one every 2 years. From a green aspect, I think Airstreams are more green from a recycling aspect, but more so from a towing aspect. They are lighter, and more aerodynamic, so if you had a side by side, there would be less fuel used to tow an airstream than other trailers. I don't know which creates more of a toxic mess to the environment - aluminum or fiberglass. Being from the top of the food chain, I think we ought to be as careful as is reasonable, and then enjoy. The earth heals itself pretty well, and we only take up the outer skin. I'm not going to lay down naked in a field somewhere just to die and feed the bugs. I'm also not going to pour oil and antifreeze in my backyard because I'm too lazy to take it somewhere to recycyle it. There's a balance. I think it's more important to make decisions at the corporate level. Support your clean water bills. Force companies to clean up after themselves instead of dumping in rivers and streams. And don't be too proud to pick up someone else's litter instead of stepping over it. I rent my TV. There's a place around the corner that rents F150, 250 and Explorers with tow packages. That way, I can drive my little 35 mpg Hyundai to work everyday, but when I need it, I can rent a big truck to pull my Airstream for the approx 20 days a year I think I'll need it.

[GetOutDoors]

Originally Posted by robwok

We dont really have influence in the manufacturing process.

Actually, I think we did - that's why most businesses deamed not environment friendly moved to China. Their cost relating to environment regulation and labor went way down by making that move. As a consequence, we lost all control of what happens, environmentally.

In return we get all the unregulated pollution from China and products that are not made to last ....

Something we all might want to think about next time we have the urge to be heavy-handed with our new-found religion.

[tphan]

@W7ts: I will watch your subversive video only when you pry my cold, dead hands off my vintage Airstream Land Yacht.

@Robwok: You know, you now have me thinking about the truck-rental thing. I used my AS and Suburban for 10 days last year (pathetic, I know) and it really doesn't make a ton of sense to own the Suburban for just that, which is all I use it for. I guess I also thought that the typical rental truck was not equipped or insured for that kind of use, when I did once consider that. Great idea for keeping one's "footprint" a little smaller, though- thanks for posting!

[mutcth]

Originally Posted by robwok

I rent my TV. There's a place around the corner that rents F150, 250 and Explorers with tow packages. That way, I can drive my little 35 mpg Hyundai to work everyday, but when I need it, I can rent a big truck to pull my Airstream for the approx 20 days a year I think I'll need it.

I think that is a fabulous plan. Wandering through the rental return lanes a few days back, I saw a lot of Tahoes with tow packages - but I know that most rental car companies prohibit towing.

Too bad that; renting a tow vehicle when needed would save a lot of people a lot of money, not to mention the environmental savings.

Tom

[Ag&Au]

Beware all thee that have failed to heed mine warning. If ye shall continue on thine path of self-righteousness, the cloud of smug shall overcome thee and take from thee that which thy holdest most dear, the adoration of others.

I know this to be true, for I hath beheld it with mine own eyes. This hath been possible for I can gaze upon the city of Boulder from mine own back yard.

The Ghost of Airstreams Past.

[RickDavis]

Originally Posted by w7ts

Beware all thee that have failed to heed mine warning. If ye shall continue on thine path of self-righteousness, the cloud of smug shall overcome thee and take from thee that which thy holdest most dear, the adoration of others.

I know this to be true, for I hath beheld it with mine own eyes. This hath been possible for I can gaze upon the city of Boulder from mine own back yard.

The Ghost of Airstreams Past.

Might even make you want a thor motorhome