Printed circuit board recycling process and its environmental impact assessment

As the foundation for almost all electronic products, the printed circuit board (PCB) recycling issue has received much attention from the government, enterprises, and communities. In order to develop environmentally friendly recycling processes of PCB, the advantages and disadvantages of the existing PCB recycling process are analyzed first. Aimed to the disadvantages of the existing recycling processes, the physical recycling process is selected and improved as the solution to PCB recycling. In the improved process, a spray water process is superimposed on the shredding and smashing process and the industrial dust and irritant odor can be eliminated effectively. In order to reduce the noise impacts, the equipments are insulated within a cabin mounted sound-absorbing materials and it makes operators expose the noise under 80 dB(A). In the end, the environmental impacts of the improved PCB recycling process are assessed from the aspects of resources consumption, wastewater, and damages to human health.