AN INVESTIGATION INTO DEVELOPED AND EMERGING RECYCLINGTECHNOLOGIES FOR THE TREATMENT OF END OF LIFE PRINTEDCIRCUIT BOARDS (PCBS)

摘要

New legislation to encourage the recycling of end of life electronics and moves to implementrnsustainable development in electronics manufacturing have focussed attention on the large quantityrnof PCBs being consigned to landfill. Also, in a recent investigation conducted on behalf of the UK?srnDepartment of Trade and Industry, the need for new methodologies for dealing with end of life circuitrnboards was identified as a priority issue. Within the UK it is estimated that ~50,000 tonnes perrnannum of PCB scrap is currently generated and investigations indicate that only ~15% is subjectedrnto any form of recycling, with the remainder consigned to landfill. This paper reports the results ofrna scoping study carried out to identify the technologies and processes that can be used to recyclernmaterials from end of life PCBs.