There is a place in Wales where computers come to die. In the Royal Mint near Cardiff, delicately forged gold coins and jewellery go out one door. In through another door, though, come discarded circuit boards.
The circuit boards — also containing gold — are treated less delicately. They are bounced and rolled, jiggled and snipped, heated and smashed, shredded and dissolved.
But then, after experiencing the violence of one of the world’s most advanced electronics recycling lines, there is redemption: they become, in turn, those delicate coins and jewellery.
The recycling plant near Cardiff plans to take in 4,000 tonnes of electronic waste each year
GARETH IWAN JONES
In this newly completed plant, electronic waste is completely recycled — capacitors are stripped for aluminium, contacts cleared of copper, RAM drives gleaned for gold. No component is incinerated or sent to landfill.
The recycling