How Do You Deal With Cobalt When Recycling Electronics?
A lithium-ion rechargeable battery powers most mobile devices, such as PDAs, laptops and cell phones. It takes special processing and treatment to recycle such devices to avoid releasing hazardous waste materials, like cobalt. Keep your electronics to be recycled separate so you don’t throw them away by mistake and they end up in landfills. Choose a recycling facility that uses the appropriate technology and ask appropriate questions. There is nothing wrong with inquiring about their recycling procedures and finding out how specific components are used. Find out whether the facility will use plastics found in batteries as fuel and then recover the metals as alloys rich in cobalt, nickel, copper or iron. Expect the alloys to be refined and separated into metal compounds and pure metal. Facilities that use this technology do not add hazardous waste into the environment. Another positive feature about this type of technology is that it uses a special gas cleaning system which employs the
