Dear Karsten

I intend to reply to your questions in greater detail after speaking to Jim
Taggart, President of ECS Refining.  But here are my initial responses,
confined to the issues of disposal of end-of-life printed circuit boards
bearing solder.

First, we need perspective to put recycling of any solder in perspective.
There are only 3 alternatives to deal with used legacy, current, and future
electronics hardware.  They are landfill, incineration, and recycling.  None
of them are going to be perfectly benign to the environment.  A reasonable
objective should be to minimize and control damage.  Replacing lead in solder
with other, perhaps more toxic, definitely  harder to recycle metals does not
help the environment whether the printed circuit boards are sent to
landfills, incinerated, or recycled.  Recycling in this context includes
recovery of solder.

Now for a preliminary answer to your points.

Recycling tin lead solder from printed circuit boards is that easy.  ECS
Refining's equipment in Santa Clara California, shreds the boards into small
particles.  These go to the smelters.  All the solder is recovered, at
temperatures that certainly  do not create any noxious gases.  Electrostatic
precipitation, scrubbers, and bag houses are routinely used.  Nothing escapes
into the environment. That's why the operation has all permits and meets all
environmental standards.  Also personnel are suited with protective clothing
and are regularly tested.  There is no problem with Bi or Sb in smelting
printed circuit board particles.

I invite you to call Jim Taggart, company president at 408-988-4386.  He
regularly contributes to seminars at the Colorado School of Mines on
recycling printed circuit boards.  He can provide electronic company
customers who are apparently satisfied to be relieved of environmental
responsibility.  The plant has enough capacity to serve all the needs of
California electronic solder recovery.

Still I believe that there is a great opportunity to improve recycling
technology.  That's where we should spend some of the money now wasted on
lead-free solder.

Harvey Miller

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