REO spoke about waste with gold and silver content

Computer equipment, monitors, TVs and cell phones contain precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium. They can be recycled. This is stated in the Album of technologies for utilization of waste from the use of goods, developed by the Russian Environmental Operator (REO). "Izvestia" got acquainted with the information of the operator on December 6.

It is noted that an ordinary smartphone contains about 0.15% of precious metals: about 0.02-0.03 g of gold; 0.1-0.3 g of silver; 0.01-0.015 g of palladium; less than one thousandth of a gram of platinum.

"Waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) is one of the sources of environmental pollution, while it has a high resource value. Such wastes contain a large number of fractions that can be returned to the enterprises for recycling. And the content of precious metals in them can reach 1.5 kg per 1 ton. As a rule, such resources are extracted from printed circuit boards of computer equipment, monitors, TV sets and cell phones," explained Denis Butsaev, Director General of the REO.

He emphasized that everyone can contribute to the formation of a closed-cycle economy and turn in old equipment for recycling.

The REO specified that precious metals for reuse are extracted mainly from scrap printed circuit boards. Therefore, the most valuable component in the same computer is the motherboard. As a rule, it consists of two parts: mounting elements - microchips containing precious metals, and the base not containing precious metals with the input part glued on it in the form of copper foil conductors. At the same time it is possible to extract precious metals only when using recycling technologies, which are specified in the Album of technologies.

Earlier, on December 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that within the framework of the national project "Ecology" in 60 regions 242 objects of accumulated harm to the environment, including 157 large dumps have been eliminated. The territory of these objects was reclaimed, which made life more comfortable and safer for more than 20 million people, the head of state added.