Metals Content in Printed Circuit Board Waste

This paper an presents analysis of metals in waste of printed circuit boards (PCB) covering types of PCB, segregated from PC computers, mobile phones, and mixed. The presented data identifies metals and other substances found in PCB waste based on elemental and technical analysis of PCBs. PCB categorization based on gold concentration is presented, resulting in two groups: electric and electronic PCBs. Then mass of PCBs in waste of electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) is presented, and annual PCB mass is calculated for collection in Polish wEEE. Finally, I present an analysis of metals values in PCBs pointing to gold, palladium, and copper as the three the most valuable metals for recovery. This study presents an overview of resources present in printed circuit boards.