This article was taken from the March 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
A team at the Teddington-based National Physics Laboratory (NPL) has developed ReUSE, a type of printed circuit board (PCB) that can be, yep, recycled by immersing it in hot water. Currently only two per cent of a PCB can be recovered at recycling plants. "But we can recover up to 90 per cent," says Martin Wickham, technical leader at the NPL.
The new material comprises layers of polymer connected by a glue that also holds the electronic components of the circuit board together. The glue softens and loses its adhesion when exposed to water hotter than 80 degrees Celsius. This allows the PCB's components, including resistors and capacitors, to be separated from the base with minimal force, and redeployed. "In the future, recycling plants may have massive dishwasher-like machines into which the PCBs are put to separate the components," says Wickham. The technology is limited to simple electronics, such as radios and printers, but in time, Wickham says, it could be used in more complex devices such as smartphones.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
