Tons of electronic scrap and process waste are sent to landfills every day. With the help of innovative methods – in technological, environmental and economic terms – it is possible to recover… precious metals. So are there layers of silver and gold hidden in our devices? What can you recover from a broken computer and what does the process look like in practice?
Expertise in innovative raw material recovery methods is shared by Dr. hab. Wojciech Hyk (CNBCh UW), manager of Greenmet Lab, answering questions from Dr. Justyna Pokojska about:
- metals that can be recovered from electronic waste,
- source of waste for recovery,
- procedure for recovering precious metals from electro-waste,
- ways to reuse recovered materials,
- costs associated with the targeted recycling process,
- limitations (beyond knowledge and know-how) of waste re-use,
- the definition of targeted recycling.