Recycling Solutions - Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth's Mineral Resources - page 442

14.6.2 Minor metals recovery fromEoL
Minor metals can also be obtained from old scrap given that most are components of
high tech products such as printed circuit boards, mobile phones, computers, LCD
screens and other devices constituting what is legally referred to as waste electrical
and electronic equipment (WEEE). Private vehicles are also a key source of minor
metals, as they contain micro-motors and catalytic converters. Different types of
batteries containing Pb, rare earths, in addition to Ni, Co, Cu , Mn or Li are also
a source of metal recovery.
That said, when extracting metals from recyclate two main groups of products
need to be distinguished (Hagelüken and Meskers, 2009, 2010): those having a
paying metal and those that haven't. Paying metals could include Cu, Pb, Ni, the
precious metals, and eventually Te, Se,Sb, Bi, In, Sn, Ga and Ge. Used products
containing paying metals have su cient economic backing to properly recover them
and their additional metal byproducts, as would be the case of mobile phones. On
the contrary, when recyclates lack an economic incentive or compulsory regulation,
such as occurs with thin film photovoltaics, no recycling takes place, even if the
technology to do so already exists.
An additional problem to take into consideration is that when a product arrives
at its EoL, all combinations of minor metals may be possible in waste streams,
contrarily to the natural order whereby ore families of minor metals are always
linked to a major one (thus facilitating a metallurgical processing route based on
chemical similarities). The chemical behaviour of rare earths for example, is closer
to that of the alkaline-earths than to the precious and other non-ferrous metals. The
recovery route of one set of metals may therefore impede that of co-existing ones.
Therefore, “waste metallurgy” could even be more complex than its conventional
counterpart, unless good collection and sorting processes prevent any mixing. Even
should mixing be restricted, the di culty of waste treatment is also a matter of sheer
volume, especially as each individual waste needs a specific recycling treatment. The
more specific it is, the better the resource recovery.
One key waste stream is that of consumer electronics. As they are widely dis-
tributed across the globe, a complex web of reverse logistics is increasingly necessary
to recover economically and e ciently their minor metal constituents. This is be-
cause a truly global distribution makes it nearly impossible to obtain su cient
processing volumes. Yet society must begin to consider how it would go about
re-integrating reverse logistics as “Without establishing effective recycling loops for
scrap production, as well as for EoL products to stimulate secondary metal pro-
duction, supply problems may result for a number of minor metals accompanied by
corresponding price effects” (Hagelüken and Meskers, 2010).
Indeed, and according to the EU Joint Energy Research Centre (Moss et al.,
2012), the 2030 forecast demand for the deployment of the EU Strategic Energy
Technology Plan alone, is 50.4% for Te 19.4% for In and 0.28% for Se, relative