9. Recycling

Given the dissipative nature of selenium and tellurium, there are no specialized recycling activities. Indeed, the market and prices are highly volatile, making it difficult to demonstrate a clear commitment to recycling. For scrap to become profitable, prices would have to be much higher than those of the 1990-2000 decade. For example, it was profitable to recover selenium from photocopier drum scraps in 1988, when the price was around US$9.50 per pound. It seems that between 1999 and 2000, 250 t of secondary selenium were still produced worldwide. Tellurium is in a similar situation. As prices fell during the 1990s, scraps from photocopier drums continued to accumulate. However, if prices continue to rise, as they have since 2005, recycling could become attractive and lead to sustainable collection of electronic scrap. Similarly, environmental protection could become the driving force...