The recycling of obsolete electronics can yield an array of materials ranging in value from gold and other precious metals to leaded glass that is wanted at just a handful of end destinations.
Speakers at the at the Electronics Roundtable at the 2005 ISRI Commodities Roundtable Forum addressed several segments of the materials stream encountered by electronics recyclers, and fortunately most of these sectors are offering opportunities.
Scrap metals, if they can be separated cleanly, remain a valuable portion of the electronics stream. Steve Skurnac of Noranda Recyclers, San Jose, Calif., noted that personal computers (non-laptop) and cell phones remain at the high end of the value chain for Noranda, which seeks recoverable precious metals for its refinery.
But Skurnac also noted that electronics recycling facilities that shred obsolete electronics, whether operated by Noranda or other recyclers, are also able to recover marketable ferrous scrap, aluminum scrap, copper scrap and mixed metals as well.
Increasingly, though, plastics are a material of choice used by electronics recyclers. Traditionally, markets for shredded mixed plastic have been limited, but Sanford Selman of investment fund group Asia West LLC, Greenwich, Conn., is backing two companies that could help change that scenario.
MBA Polymers, Richmond, Calif., has pioneered technology that allows it to separate mixed shredded plastics to create clean virgin-grade flakes and pellets of desirable resins.
Selman said flakes and pellets made by MBA at its pilot plant in California and its new facility in China “are passing production comparison tests” at plastic molded parts manufacturing facilities to achieve the virgin-grade specification.
Another Asia West-backed company, MaSeR (Materials Separation & Recovery) Corp., Marblehead, Mass., is processing mixed electronic scrap at its facility in Canada that is yielding a clean (relatively metals contaminant-free) mixed plastics product that should be ideal for separation via the MBA process.
Selman remarked that if the two processes can work in tandem, this could provide a needed breakthrough to greatly improve the end market prospects for the plastics portion of the shredded electronics stream.
Markets for the leaded glass contained in computer monitors and televisions are not quite as dynamic. David Cauchi of Envirocycle Glass Co., Mesa, Ariz., told attendees that there are now just three facilities in North America that can accept crushed monitor glass for recycling. One is the last remaining monitor glass manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania, while the other two are lead smelters that can use the glass as a fluxing agent.
The number of end market destinations is increasing in East Asia, however, as that part of the world assumes its leadership position in electronics manufacturing.
The potential structure of the leaded glass recycling industry in the United States could see the existence of glass “cleaning” operations here that would produce a 99 percent-lead free glass that could be shipped off the West Coast and is permissible to export to China.
The ISRI 2005 Commodities Roundtable Forum was held in suburban Chicago from Sept. 20 to Sept. 22. Some 600 brokers, traders, processors and suppliers gathered for the educational and networking event.