Have you ever recycled your cell phone or computer? Roughly two billion smartphone users upgrade to a new phone yearly, but only 10% of the old phones are recycled. Many people put them in a drawer “just in case they need them someday” or toss them in the trash. Not only is this environmental waste (e-waste), but it is also a possible source of precious metals going to waste.
Experts calculate that there are more cell phones in the U.S. than there are citizens, and there are more than 334 million of us. We expect smartphones to be on the cutting edge of technology, but an old desktop computer alone holds a considerable amount of precious metal worth recovering. Recycling electronics to recover these precious metals and use them again is a viable avenue for making them more sustainable. Still, the environmental impact of extracting them is a serious concern.
What Precious Metals are Used in Electronics?
Gold
Thanks to its highly conductive and corrosion-resistant properties, gold is used in printed circuit boards, cell phones, connectors, and pins.
Silver
Silver is more commonly used in electronics due to its lower cost than gold and its malleable and highly conductive properties. It is primarily found in printed circuit boards, computer chips, cell phones, keyboards, and capacitors.
Platinum
Platinum is also found in hard drives and printed circuit boards.
Palladium
Palladium can be found in cell phones, hard drives, printed circuit boards, and capacitors.
Many other metals are also used in electronics, but they’re not all considered precious: copper, nickel, tantalum, neodymium, cobalt, aluminum, tin, and zinc.
If we commit to recovering these materials, they could be used for other applications, including further production of electronics, the automotive industry, jewelry making, and art.
How Much Precious Metal is Found in Electronics?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided projections on the number of precious metals that may be found in America’s devices: “One metric ton of circuit boards can contain 40 to 800 times the amount of gold and 30 to 40 times the amount of copper mined from one metric ton of ore in the U.S.”
The EPA has even more specific data on the content of precious metals in electronics. For every 1 million cell phones recycled, the EPA estimates we can find:
- 35,274 pounds of copper
- 772 pounds of silver
- 75 pounds of gold
- 33 pounds of palladium
Individually, most electronics only contain a few grams of precious metals each.
How Do You Extract Precious Metals From Electronics?
The process is a bit different depending on the electronic and the precious metal you’re after, but the general idea is the same:
- Disassemble the electronic device.
- Determine the location of the precious metal.
- Physically break down the component to remove as much excess material as possible.
- Chemically break down the component to fully isolate the precious metal.
- Melt the precious metal.
This process is lengthy and expensive and should only be done by professionals in a certified recycling facility.
Why Recycling Electronics for Precious Metal Content is Not Common
There are a couple of reasons why it is not common practice to recycle electronics to extract and reuse their precious metal contents:
- The process is only possible in laboratories with specialized equipment and trained professionals.
- The environmental impact is more adversely affected due to the waste from the toxic fumes and volatile chemicals requiring specific disposal methods.
- There are not enough large-scale recycling facilities to offset the time, energy, and cost to effectively replace the amount of precious metals used in electronics compared to the amount being mined.
The miniscule amount of precious metals found per electronic device is not usually worth the extraction process on an individual item, which is why large-scale operations are more cost-effective and productive. The long-term effects of recycling electronics for their precious metals content benefit the environment, the precious metals market, and investors, but the short-term effects remain enough to create an effective demand for the practice.
