Green procedure for the selective recovery of precious, specialty, and toxic metals from electronic wastes

Recycling rates for precious, specialty, and toxic metals from e-wastes are very low. Most e-wastes are sent to landfills and waste dumps. Much is sent abroad where precious metal content is retrieved, often using unsafe procedures, and the remainder discarded. Small amounts are sent to smelters for recovery of the metal content. In all of these cases, serious health and environmental problems result. Because of the precious metal content, the economic value of e-waste is large and is increasing as product sales grow. Many specialty and toxic metals, e. g., Co, Cu, In, Pb, and Cd are not recovered with resulting potential health and environmental damage when the e-waste is discarded. IBC´s Molecular Recognition Technology (MRT) process provides an economic, environmentally safe, and minimal carbon footprint means for selective separation of all of these metals from e-waste streams at the mg/L to μg/L concentration levels. MRT has significant economic and environmental advantages over competing metal recovery processes.