High Cost for Indium Recycling from Liquid Crystal Panel, JEITA

Indium recycling from liquid crystal displays (LCD) is economically inefficient without stable acquisition of 200 tonnes of LCD per month, which can be collected from 34,000 televisions or includes 16 tonnes of liquid crystal panels, according to a report by Japan Electronics & Information Technology Industries Association.A liquid crystal panel is composed of jointed 2 panel glasses inside of which liquid crystal, terminals, oriented films and color filters are assembled. To separate these inside parts from a liquid crystal panel, a new technology is examined to resolve adhesive by heat and open 2 panel grasses. However, the technology has not been realized yet.Most of used LCDs are reclaimed at landfills. Some are utilized at smelters as substitute for silicon and indium is collected from smoke. Crashed panels are recycled as cement material after melted to liquid slag. However, this indium collecting method costs 25-50 yen per kilogram. Only slight volume of indium can be collected despite of high recycling cost because a little indium is used for terminals of a liquid crystal panel.