Around 18 billion square metres of PCBs are manufactured every year and with the rising value of the precious metals within PCBs and an increasing global awareness of environmental issues, more efficient recycling is fast becoming a necessity.
Jiva Materials has developed a patented, cost effective fully recyclable PCB substrate, Soluboard. This is intended to rival the industry standard, FR-4.
FR-4 is made from epoxy resin and fibreglass which means that the only method of processing waste PCBs involves shredding and incineration to extract the precious metals within. This is a very inefficient process with substantial loss of these metals during reprocessing as well as releasing Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) into the environment.
The organic structure of Soluboard means the non-toxic ingredients begin to delaminate when immersed into hot water. This allows the natural plant-based fibres to be composted, the remaining solution to be disposed of using standard domestic waste water systems and the electronic components to be removed for re-processing.
On a global scale, an estimated 50 million tonnes of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) was produced in 2019. This number shows no sign of decreasing and the UK contributes an average of 2 million tonnes to the fastest growing waste stream every year. Small domestic scale electronic products make up the majority of the weight of this WEEE, with 8% of the weight of these products coming from PCBs.
EU domestic appliance and white goods manufacturers have confirmed a growing interest in Soluboard. Tighter regulations are being placed on manufacturers of electronics to put the responsibility of recycling firmly with the producer.
