Yes, WEEE certainly encourages recycling. Whereas RoHS was, how shall we say
it? .....established methods and practices were not completely matched to
the changes required in processing and in balances of supply and demand. Yes
that will do.

..
So far as new metal is concerned: if you consider that there is more and
more electronic stuff than before, the supply can not come solely from
recycling a portion of the existing usage.
Tin/lead etc have always been widely re-used as their low melting points
make it easy and therefore economical to do.
I've been out of touch of touch with this side of the industry for some
years, but a simplified description goes like this: 
There is/was a ladder of quality from say micro-electronics/electronics at
the top to something like blow pipe solder for stained glass windows at the
bottom. Salvaged metal from the top rung goes to the next one down. The
alloy content being adjusted and simple purifications as required at each
step. At the bottom the metals would go out of the loop and be refined
(usually electrolytic ally), to restore it to top quality material and on
round again. A significant portion of all metals (not just solder metals)
comes from used material and you will often see references to a
primary(newly mined) and secondary (reclaimed) markets.
Virgin grade is really more of a historic term in this context. If used,
virgin is generally understood as a shorthand to describe metal as pure as
if it hadn't been used rather than to mean "never been used". Better to
think in terms of percent pure 99.99%, four nines etc.


Regards


Mike Fenner

Bonding Services & Products
M: +44 [0] 7810 526 317
T: +44 [0] 1865 522 663
E: [log in to unmask]

 


-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Upton, Shawn
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2012 1:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] re TIN---an important article

I did not read the whole article.  But I thought the purpose of WEEE
(predecessor to RoHS) was to force recycling and reuse of electronic waste.
Isn't tin being reclaimed and reused?  Or is that reclaimed tin just too
expensive, as compared to virgin tin?

Shawn Upton, KB1CKT
Test Engineer
Allegro MicroSystems, Inc
[log in to unmask]
603.626.2429/fax: 603.641.5336


-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of harvey
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2012 9:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] re TIN---an important article

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-23/the-deadly-tin-inside-your-i
pad


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