Types of Materials That Contain Precious Metals

You can recover precious metals from electronics, car parts, and jewelry, to name just a few sources. The precious metals that are recovered from electronics and other sources can be used over again in jewelry, electronics, cars, plating, and so forth. In addition, many industrial devices and manufacturing scraps are also valuable sources of recoverable precious metals. Dental and medical apparatus are also valuable sources of precious metals. For example, discarded crowns and bridges include precious metals, as do, of course, discarded gold fillings.

The next paragraphs discuss two sources of precious metals in more detail - electronics and car parts.

Electronics: Recyclable electronics are a surprisingly rich source of precious metals. From microprocessors to cell phones, many everyday objects contain precious metals. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that for every one million cell phones that are recycled, the following quantities and types of precious metals can be recovered:

• 35,274 pounds of copper
• 772 pounds of silver
• 75 pounds of gold
• 33 pounds of palladium

Printed circuit boards and microprocessors contain gold, silver, and palladium. One metric ton of circuit boards yields between 40 and 800 times the amount of gold mined from the same amount of ore.

Car Parts: Certain car parts yield precious metals. Catalytic converters, for example, contain platinum, palladium, rhodium, and copper. (A catalytic converter is a device in the exhaust system of a car that reduces the toxicity of the exhaust.)

To learn more about RCRA visit our RCRA Hazardous Waste Safety Online Training web page.