The shredding of automobiles and major household appliances is a process where a
hammermill acts as a giant
tree chipper by grinding the materials fed into it to fist-size pieces. The shredding of automobiles results in a mixture of
ferrous metal,
non-ferrous metal (e.g.
alloys of
copper and
aluminium) and shredder waste, called
automotive shredder residue or
automobile shredder residue (ASR). ASR consists of
glass,
fiber,
rubber, automobile liquids,
plastics and
dirt. ASR is sometimes differentiated into shredder light fraction and
dust. Sometimes these residual materials are called "Car-fluff".