PCB recycling: How to recycle circuit boards?

As we know, PCBs, or printed circuit boards, are generally contented in waste computer, TV, mobile phone, etc. They are consisted of 40% metals(most of copper) and 60% non-metals, which has high recyclable. Well, how to recycle circuit boards?

There are three primary ways to recycle circuit boards, including heating recycling method, chemical recycling method and physical recycling method. Each of them possesses its own set of pros and cons. Let’s take a look.

Heat method recycling

With heat method recycling to recycle circuit boards, you must heat the waste PCB with a high temperature, which can burn off the resin fiber of the PCB, and then left metals.

Heat method recycling

Pros: It is very easy and fast to recover the metals on the circuit boards.

Cons: There will be some non-metal stick to the metals, which can't separate metals out clearly; and the quality of metals will get some damage, which will affect the final sale price. Besides, it will create harmful gases, like lead and dioxin, to the air.

Chemical method recycling

For chemical recycling method, it will use some chemical solution, such as strong acids or alkali. Use the non-metal in the circuit board to react with the chemical solution to corrode the non-metal, and then the metals will be left.

Chemical method recycling

Pros: It is an easy way to recycle circuit boards to get precious metals and non-metals separated out.

Cons: Strong acid and strong alkali are highly corrosive, which will not only corrode metals and affect the metals' quality, but also pose a greater threat to human safety. Besides, it will also creates a large quantity of waste water, which will pollute the water resource.

Physical method recycling

This physical method to recycle circuit boards mainly refers to process waste circuit boards through machinery or equipment. Waste circuit boards recycling machine is one of them. It can separate precious metals from waste circuit boards through shredding, crushing, sieving, air separation and electrostatic separation.

Working process of waste circuit boards recycling machine

Pros: It adopts air separation and electrostatic separation, which can separate precious metals from waste circuit boards with 99% separating rate. Besides, the adopted physical separation method uses no water, fire or chemical solution, which won't damage the environment and the quality of metals. The separated metals has high quality and purity, which can be sold at a pretty price in the metal trading market.

Cons: The price of waste circuit boards recycling machine is a little high, and will cost some money on labor force, land, power, etc.

Final products and applications

The separated metals can not only be sold directly in the metal trading market at a pretty high price, but also can be further processed to extract the precious metals and sell them. As for the non-metals, they can be made into resin tiles, ground painting, wood-plastic products, etc. If they are ground to about 300 mesh, they can also be used as heat and fire insulation materials.

The following is a profit analysis table by using waste circuit boards recycling machine to recycle circuit boards, which is provided by our Indian customer.

Tips: The price is different in different countries and areas. You can calculate your profit according to your local accurate price.

Waste circuit boards recycling machine

Physical recycling method(using waste circuit boards recycling machine) has been the most popular way to recycle circuit boards. Henan Doing Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd is a professional manufacturer of waste circuit boards recycling machine, who has sold their machine to many countries, like Russia, India, Bangladesh, New Zealand, etc. So if you are interested in it, please feel free to contact us!