Evaluation of the sustainability of energy recovery from automobile shredder residue (ASR): an italian case study

Social and economic progress and development of new technologies have caused a progressive shortening of car’s lifecycle and a subsequent increase of the amount of relative waste. Actually, despite that car is one of the goods with the higher percentage of recycling, the amount of hardly re-usable polymeric and composite species (ASR) cannot find a different placement but landfills, causing relevant disposal costs and generating a significant environmental impact, due to the highly-toxic substances in many of their components and fluids. In this issue we studied the supply chain for recovering disused vehicles in the Italian Region of Friuli Venezia-Giulia and its conclusion by means of an energy recovery. Plant capacity of addressing the more and more restrictive limits on emissions and air quality has been studied, after having evaluated the fall-outs on the ground