Going further back, Lady Bird Johnson was the first wife of a U.S. president to advocate actively for legislation when she was instrumental in promoting the Highway Beautification Act of 1965. It sought to beautify the nation’s highway system by imposing stern limits on the visual appearance of roadside areas. The consequences of this bill spilled over into auto recycling and an attack ensued. The cornerstone of the initiative, among other things, required certain junkyards along interstate or primary highways to be removed or screened and encouraged scenic enhancement and roadside development. Automotive recyclers rose to the challenge. ARA even gave a “Beautification Award” to automotive recyclers whose facilities had the best transformations. Born was the modern automotive recycling facility of today – extremely organized and efficient facilities with state of the art equipment, and committed to meeting local, state and federal regulations governing safety and the environment. Unfortunately, the Lady Bird mindset still prevails. Even after the billions of dollars spent to upgrade, improve, and advance, the perceived image of 1965 still lingers with the unfair portrayal of technologically advanced and highly trained automotive recycling facilities as “junkyards.”

In recent months, it has become clear that while progress is being made with many more consumers and decision makers understanding the value and advancements that the automotive recycling industry brings to the economy of business, and to the care of the planet, there have been unforeseen aggressive attacks stemming from common misrepresentations of our industry by ignorant regulators and, most recently, the media.

The climate for automotive recycling is getting tougher, yet with laser focus unification and a com- mitment from more recyclers to unite under certifi- cation programs, these obstacles can be overcome, and the efforts put forth to do so can improve the entire automotive recycling industry.

What the ARA wants you to know is that programs exist and help is available immediately to tackle these issues. What is needed is more industry partic- ipation in order to be a part of the solution (see box on page 34).

Solving the Image Issue Head On On February 11, 2015, CNN’s Anderson Cooper

360 broadcast aired a significantly biased piece of unfair reporting on the Louisiana Attorney General’s lawsuit against State Farm.

In August 2014, Louisiana Attorney General Buddy

Caldwell filed suit against State Farm Insurance alleging the insurer has violated the state’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law by steering consumers to direct repair providers that have signed agreements with the insurance company. In remarks about the lawsuit, Caldwell made disparaging comments about the uti- lization of recycled, gen- uine OEM parts, saying

that State Farm deceives customers by steering them to use cheaper or used auto parts, or parts found to be knock-offs of questionable quality. ARA responded directly to Caldwell in August about those damaging comments and has continued to meet with his office to better educate them about recycled parts.

There have been unforeseen aggressive attacks stemming from common misrepresentations of our industry by ignorant regulators and, most recently, the media.

In response to the CNN segment, a letter to CNN’s Anderson Cooper was drafted by ARA CEO Michael E. Wilson and said, “During the piece, it immediately became painfully obvious that CNN’s research team is unaware of both the robust automotive parts supply chain that supports an increasing global mar- ket and the critical role that recycled original equip- ment manufacturer (OEM) parts play in that market. ARA requests that CNN retract the factually incorrect and misleading statements made about recycled OEM parts in this broadcast.” Wilson continued, “For this segment to live up to CNN’s ‘The Most Trusted Name In News’ reporting slogan, CNN’s investigative team should have contacted the stake- holder experts in the automotive parts industry, specifically the ARA.”

“If you had dug a little deeper to ensure balanced reporting,” Wilson cited, “you would have learned of ARA’s September 2014 response to Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell in which we took issue with his mischaracterizations and disparaging statements. He, like your reporters, wrongly referred to these parts as ‘nothing more than junkyard parts.’ That is simply untrue.”

Wilson defended the automotive recycling industry’s March-April 2015 | Automotive Recycling 33