we know most electronic waste has Precious metals requiring crushing and granulation for its extraction.
but is the individual components in e-waste worth salvaging?
I give for example any used solder on psb's.
or un-crushed ferrite cores hold any value worth recovering for reuse in the electronics second hand market?
Depends on your living situation. For most in the developed world there is very little that is worth the effort to salvage. There are a few exceptions, mostly driven by collector or fad markets. And even in the developed world many people don't have unlimited hobby budgets so salvaged components as an avoided cost can make sense. But there is no way to make a decent living selling them.
On the other hand, in undeveloped countries where there few environmental or safety restrictions and labor is cheap there are fairly substantial salvage operations. Buying from these operations is risky for those with first world standards because they have neither the equipment or the profit margin to do much to evaluate those salvaged components, but can provide access to otherwise unavailable parts.
we know most electronic waste has Precious metals requiring crushing and granulation for its extraction.
but is the individual components in e-waste worth salvaging?
I give for example any used solder on psb's.
or un-crushed ferrite cores hold any value worth recovering for reuse in the electronics second hand market?
Recycled solder is already being used in big-name commercially produced electronics.
As for components: most of the time the residual value of the component is far less than the cost to extract it safely, never mind test and repackage it.
Desoldered components are being sold. A couple of years ago I received a batch of desoldered chips. I ended up sending them back as the advert claimed the chips to be new.
Maybe higher value components like transformers from linear PSUs,
10-turn potentiometers, high wattage resistors, etc.
It depends:
- source of obsolete parts for repair of old devices
- cheap/free parts for playing around and experimenting
- hobbyist budget (transformers, ferrite/ironpowder cores, heatsinks and so on are expensive)
- environmental reasons (reusing is better than recycling)