1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:06,160 When you think of electronics manufacturing in Asia, understandably 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:13,519 there are a lot of words that probably pop into your mind. Toxic chemicals, air 3 00:00:10,040 --> 00:00:16,160 pollution, hazardous waste, e-waste, 4 00:00:13,519 --> 00:00:22,400 heavy metals. And you know what? These are real problems that anyone with half 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:26,160 a brain can hopefully agree that we need 6 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:29,119 to solve. So then what is being done on 7 00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:36,120 the small island nation of Taiwan where according to the economist 40% of their 8 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:40,800 annual exports are electronic devices 9 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:44,320 manufactured by companies like ASUS, HTC 10 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:46,559 and Acer. To find out, we went about an 11 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:54,800 hour out of the city to sit down and chat with Mr. Stan Sue, the president of 12 00:00:50,079 --> 00:00:54,800 Sue Recycling Technology, Inc. 13 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:23,119 Cooler Master's 25th anniversary edition 14 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:25,600 Cosmos 2 features a unique dual cool 15 00:01:23,119 --> 00:01:31,040 curved tempered glass side panel. Check it out now at the link 16 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:33,439 below. In circuit board manufacturing, 17 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:38,640 as in baking, there is always some leftover material when the finished 18 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:41,200 product is cut out. But unlike baking, 19 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:47,759 you can't just fold it up and cut again. So, what do you do? To answer that, SRTI 20 00:01:44,799 --> 00:01:53,119 was kind enough to take us deep inside the bowels of one of their four 21 00:01:50,159 --> 00:01:57,759 facilities here in Tawyen, Taiwan, where they're using techniques created in 22 00:01:55,040 --> 00:02:01,360 collaboration with several universities under the supervision of the 23 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:08,800 Environmental Protection Bureau to extract valuable metals like gold, 24 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:11,520 silver, and platinum from leftovers so 25 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:16,959 they can be reused instead of ending up in a landfill. or a pile in a developing 26 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:22,239 country somewhere. And the goal is to do this in the most ecologically 27 00:02:18,959 --> 00:02:24,640 responsible way possible. So, some of 28 00:02:22,239 --> 00:02:29,040 the e-waste coming in the door takes a pretty familiar form. Printed circuit 29 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:34,640 boards, integrated circuits, and the like. These get picked up from partners, 30 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:39,519 shredded right in front of the partners to protect their valuable intellectual 31 00:02:36,640 --> 00:02:44,160 property, and then the shreds get placed into these stainless steel cages. 32 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:49,440 They're round so that they can be spun around like a clothes dryer to optimize 33 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:54,400 contact with the solvent that you have got to be kidding me cyanide. I 34 00:02:51,920 --> 00:02:57,680 immediately I was like is that safe? And they were like of course not. What a 35 00:02:55,920 --> 00:03:03,040 stupid question. That's why we have these gas detectors, fume hoods, and 36 00:03:00,319 --> 00:03:08,000 goofy clothes. So anyway, the crane grabs the cage and submerges it in the 37 00:03:05,519 --> 00:03:12,480 cyanide, spins it around, and then as little as 3 to four minutes later, 38 00:03:10,319 --> 00:03:19,519 depending on the elements in the waste, it can be pulled out, washed, cooled, 39 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:22,800 dried, and then opened to reveal some 40 00:03:19,519 --> 00:03:25,920 scraps from LED production. So what you 41 00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:29,519 see here is a stripped gold copper 42 00:03:25,920 --> 00:03:33,200 alloy. Any exposed gold has actually 43 00:03:29,519 --> 00:03:35,920 been dissolved into the cyanide. So, it 44 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:40,799 gets put into these one-ton drums for further processing. But we'll come back 45 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:45,200 to that a little bit later. First, we need to take a look at some of the 46 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:52,080 e-waste that you might not recognize as potentially valuable. These bags are 47 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:54,720 full of cloths that were used to clean 48 00:03:52,080 --> 00:04:00,000 electronic parts during manufacturing. So they pick up trace amounts of 49 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:05,680 valuable metals like aluminum, silver, and maybe even gold that can be 50 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:09,040 extracted by the coolest means possible 51 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:11,519 with fire. But burning these cloths 52 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:17,759 normally would release toxic and environmentally harmful chemicals called 53 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:20,320 dioxins. So that's where the furnace, as 54 00:04:17,759 --> 00:04:26,639 it's been nicknamed, comes in. Unlike some crude burn barrel, it uses two 55 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:29,199 combustion chambers. A primary one to 56 00:04:26,639 --> 00:04:35,840 burn down the fabric and melt metals like silver and a secondary chamber that 57 00:04:32,479 --> 00:04:40,160 takes the exhaust and turns it up to 58 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:42,639 around 1,000° C to destroy the dioxins, 59 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:49,040 then rapidly drops the temperature down to 200° C to prevent them from 60 00:04:45,759 --> 00:04:52,479 reforming. This process can yield as 61 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:55,680 much as a kilogram of silver per 100 kg 62 00:04:52,479 --> 00:04:57,280 of cloth and a lot of ash that can 63 00:04:55,680 --> 00:05:01,199 actually be used for concrete production. The remnants from the 64 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:07,520 burning process come with us to the next station. They're heated up in a titanium 65 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:10,479 container in a king's water bath. This 66 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:17,440 mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid dissolves gold and platinum, but not the 67 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:19,600 other so-called noble metals. Then 68 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:23,840 anything that we don't need gets filtered out here before the yellow 69 00:05:21,919 --> 00:05:29,919 liquid is carted over to the next station, electrolysis. They are used to 70 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:34,000 extract the gold from both our king's 71 00:05:29,919 --> 00:05:35,919 water and cyanide solutions from before. 72 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:39,840 The negative terminal is on the left and the positive is on the right with a 73 00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:45,280 stirring motor in the middle. The terminals will collect other things 74 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:47,880 while the gold in a porous form called 75 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:53,759 sponge gold collects in a titanium container. This process continues for 24 76 00:05:51,199 --> 00:05:58,080 hours and the voltages applied to extract this purity of gold are 77 00:05:56,080 --> 00:06:03,120 apparently trade secrets that they wouldn't allow us to show. Once all the 78 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:08,240 gold is extracted, the liquid gets transferred to another facility where 79 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:10,720 they're focused on taking out silver. 80 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:17,560 Leading us then finally to where the magic really happens, the casting room. 81 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:19,919 Our sponge gold is heated to over 82 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:25,759 a,000°. The vapors you see being captured by the fume hood are small acid 83 00:06:22,759 --> 00:06:28,479 impurities. Then some regular household 84 00:06:25,759 --> 00:06:32,080 borax is added to act as a flux and purifying agent. And the gold gets 85 00:06:30,639 --> 00:06:38,209 poured into a 86 00:06:43,479 --> 00:06:52,720 cast. Yes, my friends, you are witnessing the birth of a gold brick. 87 00:06:49,840 --> 00:06:58,720 The cast gets poured into water to cool and harden it. Then it's actually still 88 00:06:55,520 --> 00:07:03,599 pretty warm when it comes out. Our 4 to 89 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:06,960 59 fine grade 2 kg gold brick is ready 90 00:07:03,599 --> 00:07:09,039 for polishing and transfer to the vault 91 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:15,440 which they unfortunately wouldn't let us inside. So I don't even know how much 92 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:19,720 what's 2 kilos of gold worth. 93 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:19,720 Take out the mass and see your smile. 94 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:26,199 So how how much is this one worth? Uh 95 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:32,240 maybe 40,000 N. Oh, like a 100,000 Canadian or 96 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:37,280 so. Sorry. 97 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:40,639 No, no, not so much. So each month then 98 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:43,280 the 130 people working at SRTI turn 99 00:07:40,639 --> 00:07:52,400 about 200 metric tons of what would otherwise be e-waste into 100 kg of 100 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:57,039 gold, 800 to 900 kg of silver, and about 101 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:59,360 a metric ton of copper. Unbelievable. A 102 00:07:57,039 --> 00:08:04,080 huge shout out to them for allowing us behind the scenes to see how they've 103 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:08,960 built an amazing business out of reusing and recycling precious materials while 104 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:14,800 minimizing the environmental impact of the electronics manufacturing taking 105 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:14,800 place on their island 106 00:08:15,879 --> 00:08:24,400 home. You've probably heard maybe even on this show that browsing the internet 107 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:26,720 with a VPN is safer and more secure. But 108 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:31,880 if it looks complicated, never fear. 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