Editor's Focus

Now, a new problem has arisen. Over the past 10 or 15 years, automobile manufacturers have increased the quantity of nonferrous metal (particularly aluminum) and plastics contained in cars in their search for lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Although these are laudable goals, the result on the recycling end has been to lower the ferrous yield for auto shredders. 

Recent statistics show that only 67 percent of a car’s components are made from iron and steel today, down from 74 percent in 1978. During that same period, aluminum content nearly doubled, from 3.2 percent to 6 percent, and plastic composites increased from 5 percent to 7.6 percent. 

But the battle for increased material content in vehicles is far from over. The steel industry has developed an ultra light steel to compete with the lighter aluminum and plastics components. And the aluminum and plastics industries have devised all-aluminum and plastic composite-based cars, although their commercial applicability is yet to be seen.

This month, we run several stories of interest to the auto shredding industry. One is a study of the changing content of automobiles and its impact on auto dismatlers and shredder operators. The other is a profile of Huron Valley Steel Corp., a nonferrous processor that has devised innovative ways to sort and recover the aluminum, zinc, copper, brass and stainless steel contained in auto shredder residue (ASR).

Scrap processors and recyclers need to stay in close contact with the automobile manufacturing industry. Given the direction auto manufacturing is going, this sort of communication will be necessary on an ongoing basis to ensure that changes in vehicle content don’t have an adverse affect on the scrap industry.

 On another note, this month we are pleased to welcome Brian Taylor to the staff of Recycling Today as our new managing editor. Brian comes to us after eight years as editor of the Toledo Business Journal, a leading regional business news publication. Already, Brian’s strong reporting and writing skills and good sense of humor have contributed to our magazine.