Back to School with Motherboard’s Recycled Circuit Boards
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 08.22.06
We’ve never seen anything like Motherboard’s products before (except last year when we mentioned them) and each piece they sell is so unique we couldn’t decide which photo to post. The company was started in 1991 and specializes in recycling defective bare boards (or circuit boards without added electrical components) to divert waste from landfills. The circuit boards may have been designed for use in a computer, an electronics component, a phone, or a television. Their online store consists of mostly office supplies like binders, clipboards, journals and mousepads but also contains fun items like cuff links, coasters (shown here) photo frames and money clips. They also offer CD storage, photo albums and lighting. A perfect one-stop shop for many of those back to school, and dorm room, essentials! Via ::body + soul ::Motherboard Gifts
That's recycling? It is more reuse. And just delays the time it will end up in the landfill. Why not actually recycle it and get the metal out?
"Why not actually recycle it and get the metal out?"
I guess it probably depends on whether it's cheaper to extract that metal from recycling circuit boards or from other sources (like raw ore, or different kinds of waste).
Isn't it supposed to be Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, with reuse coming before recycling? Seems to me like a great idea.
Reuse is generally better for the environment than recycling. Recycling takes energy, requires lots of diesel-fueled travel, etc.
Actually, putting circuit boards into a landfill is not a bad idea at this point! This is because there is no CLEAN way to recycle them right now. At this time, when circuit boards are recycled, the metal is separated from the fiberglass by incineration, which puts horribly toxic chemicals into the air, or soaking the boards in harsh petroleum-based solvents which creates toxic wastes that are more toxic and harder to dispose than the boards themselves.
The metal smelters do not care about creating solvent wastes as long as they get the money for the metal they recover!
Until environmentally sound ways are implemented to recover materials from these boards, stockpiling them in a hole in the ground is a GOOD thing. The boards are not that biodegradable, and they can be dug up and recycled properly at the point in time when we can do the job without creating as much pollution.
If the products here do the same thing, buy time for the pc boards before they end up poisoning the earth at the hand of current PROFIT based material recovery methods, then more power to them!
I am writing a project on determing the quantity of gold in discarded computer motherboard.Can anyone heip with ideas or information?
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This is a very nice start to reusing. I think it would be great if it went one step further - I'm sure there's a way, to use these, and other fiberglass, plastics etc.. in road construction, building materials - things that we WANT to not break down lol.