Frequently asked Questions
HOW DOES ELECTRONIC WASTE RECYCLING PROCESS WORK?
Recycling rate of electronic waste should be 100%. All anti-magnetic and magnetic metals along with plastics should firstly be separated, where Copper within the copper-based metals that are separated even from aluminum should be extracted as electrolytic pure copper; and Gold, Silver and Palladium remaining within or on-top-of copper should be recovered during the second stage.
No recovered metal should remain after this procedure and no kinds of environmental pollution should be created during the procedure. Recycling companies that mainly focus on gold tend to overlook the Copper content during acidic process which makes them unable to recycle this content, and they also waste most part of the Palladium along with Copper.
All inputs (plastics, precious metals and semi-precious metals) are completely and 100% recycled within the systems constructed according to projects we conceptualize. Since the only waste generated through this system is breathable air and almost drinkable water, we can comfortably state the recycling rate to be 100%.
WHAT IS THE MAJOR PROBLEM IN ELECTRONIC WASTE RECYCLING?
Recycling companies in Turkey usually tend to shred and categorize electronic waste and market these waste to companies that provide genuine recycling services abroad. Which means that all the revenue of the waste is made use of companies abroad.
Whereas genuine recycling companies which sum up to 5 to 10 at most tend to process waste that is rich in gold since they solely focus on gold and recover gold by dissolving copper with nitric acid in order for attaining gold content of copper.
Copper that is dissolved in acid is discharged into the sewerage system during this procedure, where palladium dissolved in nitric acid is also discharged into the sewerage along with copper.
The damage incurred on environment is doubled since palladium that is worth up to 35.000 USD/kg. and copper worth 8 USD/kg. is wasted along with discharge of copper nitrate into sewer system, which also is an extremely poisonous compound.
Recovery of metals such as tin and lead is not even considered during this procedure, which also doubles the loss in question.
Exportation of electronic cards with low gold content is not possible since companies abroad do not admit these kinds of cards, and they are hence disposed of as waste material.
Revenue attained from electronic cards may range from 1.500 USD /ton to 100.000 USD/ton according to their metal content.
CAN WE RECOVER METALS FROM ELECTRONIC WASTE ON OUR OWN?
YES, WE CAN All metals can be recovered from electronic waste -especially from electronic cards which are the most valuable part of electronic waste- as the result of recycling process. All that remains is an almost-drinking-quality, salty-water containing no kind of metals, and only breathable air in treated gas. None of the metals will be wasted by this process; moreover, COPPER of 999 purity, GOLD of 999.9 purity, palladium and platinum of 999 purity will be recovered along with metals such as tin and lead. Establishing this kind of a system is not only as expensive as it is thought but also its return on feasibility is extremely short. Moreover, this system enables effective and profitable processing of almost-zero-metal-content cards besides processing of metals with high content of precious metals.
IS ELECTRONIC WASTE RECYCLING THE SAME THING WITH SCRAP HANDLING?
Numerous recycling companies operating in the market is currently shredding the electronic waste they collect by different means, separate and categorize this shredded material, try to recover the highly rich portion under inconvenient circumstances by wasting a certain portion and send out the portion readily available for profiting to refining companies abroad. Recycling companies operating in this manner should be termed as scrap handling facilities no matter which official documents they retain.
The real profit is made not by collection of electronic waste but refining this collected material and marketing the attained metals as per their real stock prices.
CAN YOU EXTRACT YOUR OWN GOLD?
No matter how weak an electronic card might be, it always contains gold, silver and palladium even in the lowest extent. Once the cards with 3-4 grams of gold content per ton are ground and copper content is separated, approximately 150 kilograms of copper and 3-10 grams of gold per kilogram of copper is recovered. Copper of 999 purity, gold of 999.9 purity, silver, palladium and platinum can easily be attained from this kind of waste. This system enables effective and profitable processing of almost-zero-metal-content cards besides processing of metals with high content of precious metals.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO RECOVER 100% OF COPPER AND PALLADIUM IN ELECTRONIC WASTE?
Numerous recycling companies are currently trying to extract gold by dissolving copper with nitric acid. Silver and palladium disperse into the solution during this process and though silver can be extracted comparably simply from the solution, a major portion of palladium is disposed of along with the copper in the solution. The system we propose primarily enables recovery of the whole copper in 999 purity, and the solution utilized does not contain gold, silver, palladium and platinum by any means. Moreover, the utilized solution can be used many times without the need for discharging it into the channel. Acid and water consumption decrease almost down to zero by utilization of this process. 100% of gold and palladium is recovered completely, without waste and more importantly in pure form from the minuscule remains resulting from the extraction of copper.