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Not long ago, unwanted cars were stripped, crushed, and left to rust at the local junkyard. Now most car parts are recycled, and the business has gone high tech.

The shift mirrors the high-tech nature of cars themselves, with more and more parts being manufactured with nanotechnology. Nanocomposites -- plastics made with nanomaterials smaller than one-ten-millionth of a meter in one dimension -- are used to make fenders, bumpers, and other parts that are extremely strong yet lightweight.

3811975.jpgBut what happens to nanomaterials when parts are shredded for recycling? SPH assistant professor Pete Raynor set out to learn more in a study funded by the U.S. Council for Automotive Research. With growing health concerns over these largely untested materials, U.S. automakers have a stake in ensuring their safety.

Raynor's team worked with engineers at Argonne National Laboratory to simulate the recycling process for a specific nanocomposite used in cars and then measured particle concentrations in the air. The team didn't find any evidence that the recycling process released airborne nanomaterials. "Actually, the ambient air generally had higher levels of nanoparticles than the air we tested," says Raynor.

Raynor is pleased that the auto industry is supporting this sort of safety research, especially considering that car parts manufactured now won't likely be recycled for at least another 10 years. "It's pretty forward thinking," he says. "Now [automakers] have comfort that they aren't, to the best of their knowledge, going to create problems for workers or the environment."

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