NEW DELHI, INDIA: Precious metals on the earth are getting exhausted and soon there will be no metals left to help in innovation if proper recovery guidelines are not included in guidelines or legislation on e-waste, primarily for development of green technology equipment.

“Day-by-day mines are getting deeper and extraction of precious metals is getting exhausted. We have reached the peak level of extraction a few years back and in another decade or so, we will be touching peak extraction level of others metal,” said Rolf Widmer, project manager, Laboratory for Technology and Society, EMPA in an exclusive interaction with CIOL.

He pointed out that environmentalist talk about using energy from sun to use as an alternative of fossil fuel but there is need to have metals that can be used to make solar cells at reasonable price.

“The big hype about cheap solar cells has to do with completely new composition of metals that can make thin film photo-voltaic cells. Tellurium, a rare metal, can absorb light much better than any other silicon material being currently used to make PV cells. Total production of tellurium on the planet is 150 pounds per year. It is being used in semiconductors at some points but the real future of Tellurium is in making PV cells,” said Widmer.”

Other rare metals namely gallium and indium are also being used to make products in information and communication technology. Gallium is being used to make LEDs, laser lights and other semiconductors used for making lightening products. Indium is being used to make flat screens for televisions, computers and mobile phone.

“These metals should be used to make PV cells to make them less expensive and more efficient. These metals are important to meet our energy needs,” said Widmer.

According to Widmer, all these metals will reach their peak extraction time in the next five to ten years. These metals, even after reaching there peak extraction time, will be available but at very high prices.

“Today we are seeing high prices of gold because it is said that gold reached its peak extraction time some 10 years ago. Around 20 per cent of gold, 10 to 50 per cent of indium, gallium and tellurium extracted on earth are used for making ICT and electronics products,” said Widmer.

He added that there is technology available to recover these materials but pointed out that policies of governments on e-waste lack proper instructions to recover these materials and these metals can be recovered.

“Economy depends a lot on recovery of metals. Technology is linked to materials. Without availability of metals, you cannot implement technology. You can observe that information and communication technology is also linked to metals and some of them are scarce. We cannot afford to loose these materials. We should focus on recovery of these metals from equipment. Technology is available for extraction,” said Widmer

Government of India in mid-December announced to come up with draft legislation on e-waste. Widmer stressed that India should include proper guidelines for recovery of rare metals which no one has done so far.

When contacted Manufacturers Association of Information Technology, one of the key industry body in formulating draft of e-waste legislation, executive director Vinnie Mehta said the draft legislation contains very broad points on e-waste and it will work out further with government to create guidelines to make things more clear for industry.

“Recovery targets are not part of legislation. It will come in guidelines on time-to-time basis. Recovery of metals depends on quality of waste that comes to recycler. The more precious the metal, the more will be its value for recycler. At present we are only aware of draft legislation. Once the legislation is formed and we are able to see the shape of this legislation then we will work on guidelines with government to make it more clear and broad for the industry.”