Recycling critical raw materials from waste electronic equipment

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Recycling critical raw materials from waste electronic
equipment
variables, high growth rates for LED lights are expected in Germany for the private
household field of application over the next few years.
The current recycling situation
The study has clearly shown that, notwithstanding what are often highly developed and
established recycling processes for refining a range of metals from waste electronic
equipment (principally copper and precious metals), there are still serious shortcomings in
the collection and pre-treatment of the appliance groups studied. Due to their recent
appearance on the market, smartphones and LED lights currently do not play a part in the
recycling industry in any noteworthy quantities, although this will change in the near future. A
significant cause of large losses of critical metals in the initial stages of the recycling chain
(disassembly and pre-treatment) is also due to an undesirable misallocation resulting from
statutory guidelines such as quantity-based recycling quotas which run counter to selective
disassembly compared with the use of shredder technologies.
The following table shows the total potential for critical raw materials for Germany and the
potential loss when using current collection, pre-treatment and refining processes for the
important notebook product group. These figures are based on the general assumption that
the devices sold in 2010 (which will on average reach the end-of-life stage after around 6.6
years) will be handled according to the collection, recycling and disposal systems which are
standard in Germany at present 34 . The table shows that up until now only a fraction of the
critical metals contained in notebooks have been fed back into the industrial cycle.
34 The following assumptions were made: Cobalt: 80% of the batteries were removed and recycled separately;
the final treatment achieved a recovery rate of 96%. Tantalum: The final treatment achieved a recycling rate of
95%. Indium: 80% of notebook displays are fed into a separate recycling process. Yttrium, gallium,
gadolinium, cerium, europium, lanthanum, terbium: For 40% of notebooks the background illumination is fed
into a separate recycling process (lamp recycling). Platinum on the hard disk drive platters is completely lost in
the light shredder fraction or the aluminum fraction.