Argonne Lab Shows How to Use 'Unuseable' Scrap From Junked Clunkers
By John O'Dell July 22, 2009
The new Cash for Clunkers program is going to produce a lot of automotive junk, and junk automobiles, that will be headed for the junk yard.
That's good news on many fronts, but bad news for our over-used landfills, which already get about 5 million tons of automotive recycling residue a year - steel, plastics, glass and even wood that's left over after all the useable parts of a junked auto are pulled off its carcass and sent to the recyclers.
The remaining stuff is shredded and this shredder residue is carted off to the dump, adding to the growing problem of what to do with all the trash our affluent nation produces.
Scientists at Argonne Nartional Laboratory have been working on a solution for several years and have built a pilot plant to further sift and sort shredder residue to find even more stuff that can be recycled.
The video above, released today by the national lab, shows how it's done.
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