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Automotive Shredder Residue, the waste stream produced by shredding operations after the recovery of ferrous and non-ferrous materials from old automobiles, is a complex mix of plastics, rubber, textiles, glass, rust and dirt contaminated with fluids and lubricants. Currently new technologies are emerging to reuse, recycle and recover resources from this waste stream which is currently landfilled. Three recovery options are presently being studied at the National Research Council Canada Use of the material as a decontaminating landfill day cover. Use of the material in combination with other recycled plastics to produce composite materials. Use of the material as a feedstock for the recovery of chemical materials by pyrolysis. Preliminary results suggest that these options could provide short and medium term solutions to the current disposal problems while longer terms solutions such as design for dismantling are developed.

Auto Shredder Residue (ASR), the waste produced by North American Shredding operations in the recovery and recycling of metals from scrapped automobiles, is currently disposed of in landfill sites. Preliminary studies conducted in our laboratory have indicated that this material could have potential as a fixation media for heavy metal contaminated waste streams. Possible lead contamination species have been mixed with ASR and the degree of adsorption has been determined. The results suggest that ASR, or at least the plastic and polymeric components in ASR, may have beneficial applications in treating other industrial waste streams while technologically feasible reuse/recovery processes are found for the increasing amounts of plastic being used in the automobile sector.