The term 'car fluff' refers to the lightweight residues from scrapped vehicles. If not recovered and therefore wasted, it can contaminate soil and groundwater and release toxic substances. Conversely, if properly treated, it can become an excellent fuel and resource.

What is car fluff?

Today, about 70% of the recoverable parts of a car are recyclable. However, in addition to these materials, there is the so-called car fluff, i.e. the car parts made of plastics, foams, rubber, glass, coatings, etc.. These components make up about 20% of the vehicle weight and are destined for landfill, although they are recoverable and can be used to produce CSS.

Benefits of car fluff

Car flaff has a high calorific value, which makes it ideal for energy recovery. The ideal way to use it is through heat treatment plants to produce electricity and heat. This investment provides an important solution to the problem of car wrecks.

Furthermore, the production of secondary solid fuels from car wrecks responds to the growing need to find alternatives to dependence on oil and other fossil fuels, in addition to renewable energy, in accordance with the circular issued by the Ministry of the Environment on 27 March 2018, which classifies car wrecks as non-hazardous special waste.

PAL Green Division's actions for car fluff recovery

The plant solutions developed by PAL Green Division for the recovery of materials from the shredding of end-of-life vehicles represent a new landfill concept to reduce environmental impact and achieve greater economic savings.

In particular, PAL Green Division has been working on an innovative plant to clean, separate and screen car wreck waste, which is then pelletised for energy use in cement factories, using the latest technology to obtain high quality material.