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Originally Posted by Tofuball
Creating and operating the new cat probably causes fat more pollution then the cat will ever clean up in its entire service life.
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Unlikely. Here's why:
1.) catalytic converters are made from small amounts of mostly recycled materials (a few pounds of steel and minute amounts of precious metals on an inert ceramic substrate);
2.) they scrub tens of thousands of pounds of exhaust over their useful life, and;
3.) they get recycled when they're worn out. (With platinum at over $700/oz, not much of it goes into the landfill.)
Now, the question of building a whole new car vs. maintaining an old one, that's probably a different story.
I can tell you from personal experience that the respiratory impact of a single vehicle with a missing or non-functional catalytic converter can be significant. I lived not far from a platinum/palladium mine. The air quality at the edge of the mine property was never as bad as the air quality behind the old Subaru I followed on my way to work this morning.
From another site:
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I like catalytic converters. They minimize the offensive odors of my car's gaseous expulsions. I wish I could put one on some people.
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