WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:06.160 When you think of electronics manufacturing in Asia, understandably 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:13.519 there are a lot of words that probably pop into your mind. Toxic chemicals, air 00:00:10.040 --> 00:00:16.160 pollution, hazardous waste, e-waste, 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:22.400 heavy metals. And you know what? These are real problems that anyone with half 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:26.160 a brain can hopefully agree that we need 00:00:22.400 --> 00:00:29.119 to solve. So then what is being done on 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:36.120 the small island nation of Taiwan where according to the economist 40% of their 00:00:32.800 --> 00:00:40.800 annual exports are electronic devices 00:00:36.120 --> 00:00:44.320 manufactured by companies like ASUS, HTC 00:00:40.800 --> 00:00:46.559 and Acer. To find out, we went about an 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 00:00:50.079 --> 00:00:54.800 Sue Recycling Technology, Inc. 00:01:16.240 --> 00:01:23.119 Cooler Master's 25th anniversary edition 00:01:19.520 --> 00:01:25.600 Cosmos 2 features a unique dual cool 00:01:23.119 --> 00:01:31.040 curved tempered glass side panel. Check it out now at the link 00:01:28.040 --> 00:01:33.439 below. In circuit board manufacturing, 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:38.640 as in baking, there is always some leftover material when the finished 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:41.200 product is cut out. But unlike baking, 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 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:53.119 was kind enough to take us deep inside the bowels of one of their four 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:57.759 facilities here in Tawyen, Taiwan, where they're using techniques created in 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:01.360 collaboration with several universities under the supervision of the 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:08.800 Environmental Protection Bureau to extract valuable metals like gold, 00:02:04.880 --> 00:02:11.520 silver, and platinum from leftovers so 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 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:22.239 country somewhere. And the goal is to do this in the most ecologically 00:02:18.959 --> 00:02:24.640 responsible way possible. So, some of 00:02:22.239 --> 00:02:29.040 the e-waste coming in the door takes a pretty familiar form. Printed circuit 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:34.640 boards, integrated circuits, and the like. These get picked up from partners, 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:39.519 shredded right in front of the partners to protect their valuable intellectual 00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:44.160 property, and then the shreds get placed into these stainless steel cages. 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:49.440 They're round so that they can be spun around like a clothes dryer to optimize 00:02:46.720 --> 00:02:54.400 contact with the solvent that you have got to be kidding me cyanide. I 00:02:51.920 --> 00:02:57.680 immediately I was like is that safe? And they were like of course not. What a 00:02:55.920 --> 00:03:03.040 stupid question. That's why we have these gas detectors, fume hoods, and 00:03:00.319 --> 00:03:08.000 goofy clothes. So anyway, the crane grabs the cage and submerges it in the 00:03:05.519 --> 00:03:12.480 cyanide, spins it around, and then as little as 3 to four minutes later, 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:19.519 depending on the elements in the waste, it can be pulled out, washed, cooled, 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:22.800 dried, and then opened to reveal some 00:03:19.519 --> 00:03:25.920 scraps from LED production. So what you 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:29.519 see here is a stripped gold copper 00:03:25.920 --> 00:03:33.200 alloy. Any exposed gold has actually 00:03:29.519 --> 00:03:35.920 been dissolved into the cyanide. So, it 00:03:33.200 --> 00:03:40.799 gets put into these one-ton drums for further processing. But we'll come back 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 00:03:42.480 --> 00:03:52.080 e-waste that you might not recognize as potentially valuable. These bags are 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:54.720 full of cloths that were used to clean 00:03:52.080 --> 00:04:00.000 electronic parts during manufacturing. So they pick up trace amounts of 00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:05.680 valuable metals like aluminum, silver, and maybe even gold that can be 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:09.040 extracted by the coolest means possible 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:11.519 with fire. But burning these cloths 00:04:09.040 --> 00:04:17.759 normally would release toxic and environmentally harmful chemicals called 00:04:14.040 --> 00:04:20.320 dioxins. So that's where the furnace, as 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:26.639 it's been nicknamed, comes in. Unlike some crude burn barrel, it uses two 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:29.199 combustion chambers. A primary one to 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:35.840 burn down the fabric and melt metals like silver and a secondary chamber that 00:04:32.479 --> 00:04:40.160 takes the exhaust and turns it up to 00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:42.639 around 1,000° C to destroy the dioxins, 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:49.040 then rapidly drops the temperature down to 200° C to prevent them from 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:52.479 reforming. This process can yield as 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:55.680 much as a kilogram of silver per 100 kg 00:04:52.479 --> 00:04:57.280 of cloth and a lot of ash that can 00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:01.199 actually be used for concrete production. The remnants from the 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:07.520 burning process come with us to the next station. They're heated up in a titanium 00:05:04.080 --> 00:05:10.479 container in a king's water bath. This 00:05:07.520 --> 00:05:17.440 mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid dissolves gold and platinum, but not the 00:05:14.320 --> 00:05:19.600 other so-called noble metals. Then 00:05:17.440 --> 00:05:23.840 anything that we don't need gets filtered out here before the yellow 00:05:21.919 --> 00:05:29.919 liquid is carted over to the next station, electrolysis. They are used to 00:05:26.880 --> 00:05:34.000 extract the gold from both our king's 00:05:29.919 --> 00:05:35.919 water and cyanide solutions from before. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:39.840 The negative terminal is on the left and the positive is on the right with a 00:05:37.840 --> 00:05:45.280 stirring motor in the middle. The terminals will collect other things 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:47.880 while the gold in a porous form called 00:05:45.280 --> 00:05:53.759 sponge gold collects in a titanium container. This process continues for 24 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:58.080 hours and the voltages applied to extract this purity of gold are 00:05:56.080 --> 00:06:03.120 apparently trade secrets that they wouldn't allow us to show. Once all the 00:06:00.880 --> 00:06:08.240 gold is extracted, the liquid gets transferred to another facility where 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:10.720 they're focused on taking out silver. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:17.560 Leading us then finally to where the magic really happens, the casting room. 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:19.919 Our sponge gold is heated to over 00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:25.759 a,000°. The vapors you see being captured by the fume hood are small acid 00:06:22.759 --> 00:06:28.479 impurities. Then some regular household 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:32.080 borax is added to act as a flux and purifying agent. And the gold gets 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:38.209 poured into a 00:06:43.479 --> 00:06:52.720 cast. Yes, my friends, you are witnessing the birth of a gold brick. 00:06:49.840 --> 00:06:58.720 The cast gets poured into water to cool and harden it. Then it's actually still 00:06:55.520 --> 00:07:03.599 pretty warm when it comes out. Our 4 to 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:06.960 59 fine grade 2 kg gold brick is ready 00:07:03.599 --> 00:07:09.039 for polishing and transfer to the vault 00:07:06.960 --> 00:07:15.440 which they unfortunately wouldn't let us inside. So I don't even know how much 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:19.720 what's 2 kilos of gold worth. 00:07:15.440 --> 00:07:19.720 Take out the mass and see your smile. 00:07:19.960 --> 00:07:26.199 So how how much is this one worth? Uh 00:07:23.520 --> 00:07:32.240 maybe 40,000 N. Oh, like a 100,000 Canadian or 00:07:29.840 --> 00:07:37.280 so. Sorry. 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:40.639 No, no, not so much. So each month then 00:07:37.280 --> 00:07:43.280 the 130 people working at SRTI turn 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:52.400 about 200 metric tons of what would otherwise be e-waste into 100 kg of 00:07:47.080 --> 00:07:57.039 gold, 800 to 900 kg of silver, and about 00:07:52.400 --> 00:07:59.360 a metric ton of copper. Unbelievable. A 00:07:57.039 --> 00:08:04.080 huge shout out to them for allowing us behind the scenes to see how they've 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:08.960 built an amazing business out of reusing and recycling precious materials while 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:14.800 minimizing the environmental impact of the electronics manufacturing taking 00:08:10.960 --> 00:08:14.800 place on their island 00:08:15.879 --> 00:08:24.400 home. You've probably heard maybe even on this show that browsing the internet 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:26.720 with a VPN is safer and more secure. But 00:08:24.400 --> 00:08:31.880 if it looks complicated, never fear. Tunnel Bear has got you covered. 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