Recycling critical raw materials from waste electronic equipment

Recycling critical raw materials
from waste electronic equipment
The corresponding data for LCD TV sets are presented in the following table. Silver (over 4.7
tons/year), indium (over 2.1 tons/year) and gold (over 1.1 tons/year) come onto the German
market in the ton range by means of LCD televisions annually. The content of gold alone is
worth around 40 million euros at present-day market prices. Yttrium as a representative of
the rare earths and the precious metal palladium are each sold in several hundred kilograms
per year in LCD televisions in Germany. Gallium and the other rare earths display less
significant quantities.
Table 13: Mean weight of critical raw materials in LCD televisions
Metal
Content per
LCD
television
(CCFL 6 ) [mg]
Content
per LCD
television
(LED 7 )
[mg]
Content in all
LCD TVs
sold in
Germany in
2010 [ kg]
Occurrence
Silver Ag 580 580 4,748.35 PCB and contacts (100%)
Indium In 260 260 2,157.86 Internal coating on display (100%)
Gold Au 140 140 1,139.60 PCB and contacts (100%)
Yttrium Y 110 4.8 647.02 Background illumination (100%)
Palladium Pd 44 44 360.87 PCB and contacts (100%)
Europium Eu 8.10 0.09 46.84 Background illumination (100%)
Lanthanum La 6.80 0.00 39.33 CCFL background illumination (100%)
Cerium Ce 4.50 0.30 26.96 Background illumination (100%)
Terbium Tb 2.30 0.00 13.11 CCFL background illumination (100%)
Gallium Ga 0.00 4.90 12.08 LED background illumination (100%)
Gadolinium Gd 0.63 2.30 9.22 Background illumination (100%)
Praseodymium Pr < 0.13 0.00