Processing of Waste Printed Circuit Boards

Recycle and reuse of obsolete electronics has now been recognised as a real big challenge. These e-wastes contain a number of metallic elements such as Cu, Pb, Sn, Ni, Fe, Al, Cd, Be, Pd etc. including the precious metals such as Ag and Au. Many of these such as Be, Pb, Cd, etc., and the acrylic and phenolic resins and epoxides in the waste are harmful and add to environmental pollution. Also, the shear volume of such waste generated today poses a great problems in term of storage/disposal space and handling. The need for processing these wastes to extract the metal values and remove the non-metallic constituents has been felt all over the world.