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About 11 million vehicles are scrapped each year in the United States. Most of these vehicles are recycled by automotive dismantlers and shredders. Presently, about 95% of the ferrous and non-ferrous metals present in vehicles (75% of the total vehicle weight) are recovered. The remainder of the scrapped vehicles (non-metal portion known as automotive shredder residue-ASR) is landfilled, generating up to 3 million tons of waste per year. In order to increase the efficiency of recovery of both ferrous and non-ferrous metals from the shredded vehicles, numerous developments have been made by the shredders in separation technology recently. This paper is an update of our previous paper and contains in-depth characterization of the various ASR streams.

Between 10- and 11-million scrap vehicles are being recycled each year in the United States by the automotive shredder industry. Presently, they are able to recover 95%of the ferrous and non-ferrous metals in an automobile, which translates to roughly 75% of the total car weight. However, up to 3-million tons of waste, commonly known as fluff or automotive shredder residue (ASR), are generated and landfilled by automotive shredders every year. In order to increase the efficiency of recovery of both ferrous and non-ferrous metals from the shredded vehicles, many new developments have been made in separation technology in the last few years. This paper describes recent developments in shredder downstream separation processes and recycling options for automotive shredder residue.