ABSTRACT
Recycling and recovery of metals from WEEE is an obvious choice to meet the global demand
for technology metals (Gu et al., 2016). 80% less resource consumption is achieved when
desktop computers are recycled and the metals are recovered (Van Eygen et al., 2016). From a
recycling point of view, WEEE is a mixture of polymetallic substances consisting of up to 60
metals, found mostly in their elemental form (dissimilar to the primary ores) along with plastics,
silicates, mixed in a complex matrix (Chapter 2, Bloodworth, 2014). Particularly printed circuit
boards (PCB) are an important source of copper (Cu) and gold (Au). The concentration of these
metals in discarded PCB are many times higher than those of primary ores (Chapter 4, Akcil et
al., 2015). This requires a novel approach to selectively and sustainably recover metals from
this metal-rich anthropogenic secondary resource.
