Rust

Rust: Costs and Realities

Rust is the pervasive enemy of just about everything people build. It destroys bridges, nuclear bombs, jets, oil pipelines and washing machines. You name it, rust slows it down, clogs it up, makes it leak or blows it up. Objects rust at different rates, depending on where they’re located. Metal rusts faster in the 21 “salt belt states” of the northeast US – where authorities put salt on roads to fight ice – than they do in Tucson. Things still rust in Tucson. Things rust in outer space.

Engineers and architects enlist an array of technological weapons in the war on rust. Designers build offshore oil rigs with an extra inch of steel on the bottom because the metal corrodes. Your car’s paint and fuel both contain corrosion inhibitors. Rust still attacks them. You pay a higher price to fight rust than you do to fight the rest of the natural disasters to which humans and machines are heir. The war on rust costs the US 3% of GDP.

Even though corrosion affects almost every metal and costs the average American $1,500 a year, rust gets relatively little attention. Humankind’s attitude toward rust reflects its larger attitude about maintenance...