A new law to promote recycling of electric appliances is to go into effect in Japan in 2001. Under this law, manufacturers will be responsible for recycling of their products. We have developed a recycling technology for printed circuit boards (PCBs), which are difficult to recycle, using a vacuum thermal treatment. This technology comprises a treatment to separate and collect metals that have higher vapor pressure by vaporization in a vacuum furnace. The application of this technology to waste PCBs makes it possible to recover lead in their solder. The results of lead leaching tests of the treated residue comply with the Japanese regulations. The treatment also makes the PCBs fragile, allowing copper foil to be easily recovered from multilayer substrates.
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