Current Trends in the Recovery of Precious Metals from Electrical and Electronic Waste

The recovery of precious metals can be efficiently done from waste. This method is considered a secondary source of raw materials, minimizing the need for exploitation and processing raw materials, while reducing energy and water consumption. Waste from electrical and electronic industry, used photographic film or waste from the jewelry manufacturing industry, fall into this category and lead to the recovery of approximately 25% of the annual requirement of gold and 20% of the annual requirement of silver. The paper presents the advantages of recycling waste containing precious metals, the difficulties of the recycling process and methods of recovering noble metals by processing electrical and electronic waste, focusing on technologies launched in recent years (bio-hydro-metallurgical processes, bio-oxidation static processes, adsorption on activated carbon or polymeric membranes, selective extraction).