Low mileage driver news - Telematics car insurance holders on palladium roads

Cover news - Telematics car insurance holders save money and so does Veolia

While telematics car insurance holders save money on the road by receiving good quotes for their cover, due to being low mileage drivers and not needing to purchase as much fuel, one company plans to save money on the roads in a very different way.

UK waste and recycling management organisation Veolia has announced that it will be able to collect palladium dust from the country's highways and reuse the expensive metal after processing it in a factory in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, and a new plant being constructed in the West Midlands.

Reportedly, palladium, which is emitted from car exhausts in small quantities, costs about £15 a gram. This calculates at about £75,000 for every five kilograms collected, which is the estimated amount that the processing plant will recover every year.

The company tested its sweeping machinery at the Notting Hill Carnival on the 28th and 29th of August, and may decide to use the same process in all 30 of its road cleaning contracts across Britain.

Veolia's head of technology and waste explained, "We have brought together two technologies – conventional soil washing, which removes plastics and metals and glass from street sweepings, and a technique that we use to remove palladium from the fine dust that is left after we have washed the soil."

Once the metal has been separated from other waste materials, such as large stones, grit, twigs and other roadside rubbish, it can be used in mobile phones, computers, dental fillings and white gold.

Telematics car insurance holders, as well as drivers whose insurer does not use any form of black box technology to offer their customers better quotes, will probably be pleased to know that the extra money the company will make if the scheme is successful might mean that they can afford a larger number of road sweeping machines. In turn this may result in the roads being cleared of obstacles, which could potentially cause vehicle damage or a car accident, even more efficiently.