Converting Toxic Computer Waste into Safe Fuels and Materials

[Karl]

ScienceDaily May 12, 2008 —

Discarded computer parts could one day wind up fueling your car. That's because researchers in Romania and Turkey have developed a simple, efficient method for recycling printed circuit boards into environmentally-friendly raw materials for use in fuel, plastic, and other useful consumer products.

The boom in the use of computers has also created one of the world's biggest environmental headaches: What to do with all the discarded circuit boards, which contain high levels of pollutants such as heavy metals and flame retardants that can potentially harm humans? Researchers are seeking ways to remove these toxins so that these scrap materials can be safely recycled.

In the new study, Cornelia Vasile and colleagues collected printed circuit boards from discarded computers and processed the boards with a combination of high temperatures, catalysts, and chemical filtration. The processing method removed almost all of the toxic substances from the scraps, resulting in oils that can be safely used as fuel or raw materials called feedstocks for a wide variety of consumer products, the researchers say.

Source: New Process May Convert Toxic Computer Waste Into Safe Products

[include]

Amazing stuff. Sure beats chucking it in landfill.

[greenacy]

Friend of mine turns old hard drives into pretty cool looking clocks. One of these days when I have the time and motivation I have been saving a cool looking logic board that I was to turn into a chess board.

[forfismum]

On the other hand you could give them to me !! I have run out of old puters to play with, all the ones I have now are working well thank you very much, I need more of a challange than just wnadering around the interweb.
I know I will go to the landfill on my way to check on my project.........or will Ishoot vermin first? decisions decisions...............

[spadlet]

Originally Posted by forfismum

On the other hand you could give them to me !! I have run out of old puters to play with, all the ones I have now are working well thank you very much, I need more of a challange than just wnadering around the interweb.
I know I will go to the landfill on my way to check on my project.........or will Ishoot vermin first? decisions decisions...............

You could try setting up something like Access Space: The Redundant Technology Initiative get low-tech in Sheffield where you live Their website is Access Space Overview & Site Map