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While safety is likely the first thing that springs to mind when the automotive conversation turns to Volvo, the Swedish auto manufacturer would like the average person to know about its efforts to reduce its impact on the environment. To that end, Volvo has launched its 'Clean inside and out' program, which outlines everything that the automaker is trying to do in protection of the environment.

After the break, we've pasted Volvo's latest press release detailing some of its environmental policies, but one figure stands out in our minds: all new Volvo's are 85 percent recyclable and 95 percent recoverable and have been so since 2002. In an age where cars are often looked as necessary but disposable objects, we can respect the distances that Volvo is going to address their environmental impact.

Ford USA has made an announcement that we might mistakenly think came from Ford of Europe: they claim that 85 percent of every car sold is recyclable. European carmakers must accomplish these exact figures by 2008 (95 percent in weight). Ford also announced that is working with Chrysler and GM through the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR) and its Vehicle Recycling Partnership to raise that number to as close to 100 percent as possible.

The EPA believes that recycling is "one of the best environmental successes of the late 20th Century". And while 52 percent of paper and 31 percent of plastic bottles are recycled, 95 percent of cars are recycled at the end of their lifespan. Most of what's recycled is ferrous scrap, which is used at the steel industry, saving iron ore and the cost of extracting it. 30 percent of the steel in food cans is recycled, and car bodies have 25 percent of recycled steel.

Related:

• Audi's Vorsprung durch Technik means a lot of recycling
• How much? 3.65 billion tons of scrap in 25 years thanks to car boom
• Fords in Germany: First a can, then a car and finally a can again

[Source: Ford]