While gold’s value is up 30% this year, following on the 20% improvement last year, a slight market correction has occurred in past weeks. | Andriy Malakhovskyy/Shutterstock
The value of the base and precious metals recovered from obsolete electronics has been at near record highs in recent months. However, market conditions appear to be softening.
Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. facility. | Uladzik Kryhin/Shutterstock
Apple recycled more than 100 million pounds of its devices last year, and it used 10% recycled or renewable materials across its product line. The company released the details in its annual sustainability report.
Gold is a key metal for e-scrap processors. | Don Bendickson/Shutterstock
Prices for an important precious metal increased notably in recent weeks, raising the value of recovered printed circuit boards.
EnviroLeach has been developing a non-toxic hydrometallurgical metals leaching method for several years. | Courtesy of Enviroleach.
Circuit board processor EnviroLeach is gearing up to bring its Canadian facility to commercial-scale capacity in the next two months. The company recently raised significant capital to help in that effort.
Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials is planning to invest over $100 million to boost its global e-scrap processing footprint.
Canada-based EnviroLeach is planning to open a processing facility that will use a non-toxic water-based formula to recover precious metals.
The recently introduced legislation covers solar panels in residential, commercial and industrial use. | Heinz Trebuth/Shutterstock
Legislation in Arizona would establish recycling requirements for end-of-life solar panels, requiring manufacturers to create a recycling program or face a per-panel fee at point-of-sale.
Umicore noted China’s restrictions on scrap material imports helped ensure an ample supply of scrap PCBs. | Iryna Imago/Shutterstock
Umicore enjoyed greater profits last year thanks in part to higher metals prices and China’s e-scrap imports crackdown, which increased the global supply of circuit board scrap.
China’s imports of some categories of non-ferrous metals, including copper, have gone down because of import quotas. | Andrew b Stowe/Shutterstock
Reports from the Bureau of International Recycling shine a light on non-ferrous scrap metal markets as we enter the new year, particularly in China.
The PCB Scrap Recovery system is designed specifically to process low-grade circuit boards. | Courtesy of PCB Scrap Recovery.
A Mexican engineering firm has developed a printed circuit board processing system marked by low resource use and simplicity. The company recently patented the process and is looking for partners.