What is "auto shredder residue" (ASR) or "fluff," and does it have any value or is it just waste?
Short answer: Auto shredder residue (ASR), sometimes called "fluff," is the leftover mix of plastic, foam, rubber, glass, fabric, and fine dust that remains after magnets and eddy-current separators have pulled out all the recoverable metal from shredded material — it has essentially no scrap metal value to you as a seller, and responsibly managing or further recovering it is the shredder operator's problem, not yours.
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List Free →Where it comes from
Once ferrous and non-ferrous metal have been mechanically separated out of shredded material, what’s left over — plastic trim, foam padding, rubber, glass, insulation, and fine dust — is the residue stream, historically sent to landfill.
Why it doesn’t matter to you as a seller
ASR is generated entirely inside the shredder operator’s process, well after they’ve already bought and paid you for the metal — it has no bearing on the price you receive, and you’re never expected to separate or handle it yourself.
What operators do with it now
Increasingly, shredder operators run additional recovery steps on ASR to pull out remaining trace metals and divert some material from landfill — this is an operational and environmental concern on the buyer’s end, not something that affects your transaction.
How ScrapTrade Makes This Easier
You don’t need to understand ASR handling to sell through ScrapTrade — that’s entirely downstream of your sale and the buyer’s responsibility.
Ready to sell scrap metal without guessing how a buyer processes it? ScrapTrade connects verified buyers and sellers with escrow-protected payments and transparent weighing.
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