Continuing Greenbang’s car themed week – a great use of technology and recycling in Canada will see one of Ford’s assembly plants running on fumes.

Paint fumes.

To lesson its environmental footprint the clever Canadian beans are installing a ‘fumes-to-fuel’ system in Oakville, Ontario.

The Edmonton Sun has the story and Ford is hailing the idea as ‘environmentally responsible technology’ and the ‘first of its kind in the world’.

Of course, the company then uses the technology to build more internal combustion engines…

“There’s nothing like this in the world,” Kit Edgeworth, a manufacturing expert with the Ford Motor Company, told Sun Media. “You couldn’t ask for anything greener in terms of technology.”

For years, paint-shop emissions – known as volatile organic compounds or VOCs – have been siphoned and incinerated in natural gas-fired furnaces that are costly and consume huge amounts of energy.

In contrast, Ford’s complex eco-friendly system, which is slated to be in use by the end of the year and at full capacity by late 2008, is expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 88% and eliminate nitrogen oxide emissions, Edgeworth said.

• Green certified homes sell faster, higher price