I wouldn’t have any use for that, the standard deduction is $12,000 so there is no reason for me to file an itemized return. Was there any tax advantage for your mother?
Yeah that’s why I said the Disabled Vets. They do the same thing-scrap or sell and use it for their programs. In Minneapolis there is an outfit too that will recondition donated cars and then provide them to people that need them. But these days, I don’t think you should consider a tax deduction as much as these folks like to shill it. It’s a red flag for one thing, and like has been said “show me the man and I’ll show you the crime”. No point going through all that for a few dollars.
NPR does not have a political agenda.
Does it have a liberal bias? Sure, but a bias is usually (as in this case) unintentional. I am a fan of their political coverage because it is short on opinion and long on fact.
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But that is not up to you since you no longer own the car. The junkyard now owns the car. What they do with it is up to the junkyard and any state regulations.
Really, why do you care? If some enterprising person want to make the car run again, why not? Many cars get junked because someone, somewhere, decided it wasn’t economical for them to repair it. If I do the work myself and your old car needs an engine, I can install a used one from the pick-n-pull make a perfectly functional car. Lots of examples from posters to this site. 2012 car, blown motor, too stubborn or broke to fix it and off to the junkyard it goes. Prime material for a DIYer.
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Unintentional bias? Ok. Not sure how that works.
End of pseudo political discussion on my part.
The church and others would not take it with a CEL! Yes mom used the writeoff.
Ok, confused at first, but I think I understand what you mean now. She didn’t want to sell it b/c the problems might turn out to be expensive to fix, and the buyer might blame her. So donating the car makes more sense. Your mother is a better person than I. As long as I believed it was basically safe, I’d still have sold it, but disclosed everything I knew to be wrong, and suggested or even required the buyer get their own pre-purchase inspection first.
pick a part only put in concrete a few years ago
I got the impression it was to remain in compliance, not because they really care about the environment
Add these stories about salvage/scrap operations to the total environmental impact of vehicles.
Like anything made and no longer needed, nothing can be thrown away as there really is no “away.” “Away” is just someone else’s water supply, or future schoolyard playground.
And folks wonder why we need government regulations!
Oh I think that’s a little off. Cars are melted down and used for new metal products.
Yeah, cars are about the MOST recycled things we buy. Electronics are a nightmare in comparison.
At salvage yards and scrapyards, cars are salvaged. Their parts are stripped and reused or rebuilt. The fluids are drained and (in most cases) properly disposed of. The batteries are recycled. Eventually, when cars are stripped, the bodies are melted down and reused.
The only parts that I can think of that can’t be reused are rubber and plastic components, and tires probably take up the most landfill space of all the major components.
Sure, there is an environmental cost to disposing of and buying a new car, but whether the environmental cost of manufacturing or the environmental cost of disposal is worse is debatable, especially if you consider the energy used to make the new car.
I would rather watch Modern Marvels than Pawn Stars or American Pickers.
I bought some of that recycled rubber mulch made from chopped up tires maybe 12 years ago now. I sold the house 5 years ago and that mulch was still there, still as brown as the day I laid it down under a playset…only bad part was it smelled like a hot tire on the hottest summer days…
I’ve been in a parking lot that was made of recycled rubber. It was all well and good until I needed a place to park my motorcycle where my kick stand wouldn’t disappear into the soft rubbery ground. I ended up having to park on a sidewalk.
Currently, we only recycle about 80% of the 290 million tires used in the US each year, leaving about 58 million tires per year to dispose of that don’t get recycled. (Numbers come from the EPA.)
I started carrying a small rectangle of sheet aluminum to put under my kickstand after I found it laying on its side once with a massive divot in the asphalt where the stand had sunk in…
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I agree. Really, there’s an “environmental impact” to anything and everything. But, it seems like a better idea to recycle cars, appliances, etc rather than pitch them in the gulley behind the house (that may be only a southerner thing) and then go mine some more material to make new stuff. Basically, you either have to ignore old stuff, hide it, bury it, or recycle it. I think that was the point of the post you quoted, “there is no away” when you “throw it away”.
But the reason metal recycling is so prominent is because there’s a profit to be made. There’s a scrap metal yard nearby to pretty much anyone. There’s much less paper, plastic, etc recycling - at least in this area. I imagine that’s because there’s not as much money in it, absent of a government grant.
You should watch NPR sometime. Their detailed analysis of current affairs is unmatched. They don’t do a 10 minute opinion piece on something. They do a 2 hour analysis with multiple investigations and witness interviews. It’s can be an eye opener.
One great piece they did was the Iraq invasion. Specifically about the documentation the Bush White House used to justify invading Iraq. We all know the report Gen Powell read to the UN was a lie. And we also know that Iraq didn’t have any WMO’s. Those are FACTS that bother parties agree to. The NPR piece showed how it happened. They actually talked with the CIA agents who prepared the report. And have them on camera saying that the report they wrote is NOT what was read to the UN. They showed NPR the actual report. No other news organization did this kind of in-depth reporting. Personally I like the to be told the Truth. That’s why I stopped listening to Fox.
Then there’s shows like Nova. But if you’re one of those Science deniers then Nova isn’t the show for you. This Old House is still a good show to watch. And I still watch Motor Week.
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I’ve tried watching it, but I get more out of it when I just listen. 
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Yea…that too…LOL. For some reason I was thinking of PBS.
But great shows on NPR to listen too. We still get Car-Talk here where it started in Boston. Most I’ve never heard, so they’re new to me.
Wait-Wait don’t tell me is a riot.
they also do very good in-depth reporting like PBS. Great segment on who spawned the Pizza Gate, and how/why shows like Bill O’Reilly ran with it.