Example of an electronic circuit board recycling process
Extractive metallurgy - Hydrometallurgy

Currently, metals are recovered from electronic circuit boards using pyrometallurgical methods. Hydrometallurgical methods have struggled to gain a foothold in recycling operations, even though they are expected to grow in the coming years, because pyrometallurgy is energy-intensive and can recover only a few metals out of dozens. Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is the fastest-growing category of human-generated waste worldwide, with an increase from 33.8 million tons to 50 million tons between 2010 and 2018, including 1.5 million tons per year of electronic circuit board waste