Complex kit key to electronics recycling

Metals such as gold, palladium, silver and copper found in electronic scrap globally is estimated to be worth approximately EUR 56 billion. This rich source of raw materials is largely wasted, however, with only 17% of global e-scrap collected and properly recycled each year.

The effective recovery of such valuable metals is an important step in the economic viability of recycling e-waste. The technology required to maximise metal recovery and purity will be the focus of UK specialist Bunting at the upcoming E-Waste World Conference and Expo in Frankfurt, Germany. Bunting is a leading designer and manufacturer of the magnetic separators, eddy current separators, metal detectors and electrostatic separators required for this work. The company points out that the nature of e-waste means that metal recovery often requires complex processing with specialist equipment and separation technology playing a key role in successful recycling.

At the Frankfurt event, Bunting’s team will draw on the experience of installing metal separation equipment at e-waste recycling facilities such as Zixtel in the UK. Zixtel’s engineering team designed and built an e-waste recycling plant which included a metal separation module and overband magnet from Bunting. The module has a high-intensity drum magnet for separating weakly magnetic materials and an eddy current separator to recover non-ferrous metals. With the existing process, Zixtel handles in excess of 50 different product streams and the material output of the plant is 70% metal, 25% printed circuit boards and plastics, 5% destined for an energy-to-waste plant, and nothing to landfill.

To support companies who are developing e-waste recycling operations or are seeking to improve metal recovery rates, Bunting has a test facility to assess separation capabilities.

‘E-waste has never held a greater value,’ explains Bradley Greenwood, Bunting’s European sales manager. ‘The successful recovery of metals involves many stages of size reduction, screening, and separation. Our metal separators play a key role in that process, maximising the recovery of metal prior to more complex processing.’

E-Waste World Conference and Expo – 28-29 June 2023, Frankfurt.