# Silver Recovery from Compact Discs (Surprise)



## covoner (May 25, 2016)

I found this Video, and I didn't know that was possible, Surprise ...

*Silver Recovery from Compact Discs*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dceOR3XIZII

Anybody knows whats in Gold CD's ?

Salu2


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## solar_plasma (May 25, 2016)

1g silver from 200 CDs, not worth spending time and chemicals.

There are some golden CD (RW I think) that actually are said to contain gold. But I guess the layer is even thinner. Nevertheless I don't throw them away.


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## rickbb (May 27, 2016)

CD's do not have silver they have aluminum, CDR's, (recordable), *may* have some silver or gold. 

Most manufactures do not use pure silver but a silver alloy which will reduce the yield even more and make recovery more complex, (read that as costly).

Gold discs are usually 24K but the coating on both is in the 200 angstrom range.


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## upcyclist (Jun 3, 2016)

rickbb said:


> Gold discs are usually 24K but the coating on both is in the 200 angstrom range.


Haha--you know it's bad when the plating thickness is measured in a unit more commonly used for molecules & wavelengths.


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## justinhcase (Jun 3, 2016)

Polycarbonates are fully recyclable they are made from a natural resource (oil) it provides an excellent yield for plastic recycling facilities. The usual process for recycling polycarbonate is to sort, shred, wash, granulate and then compound ready for re-use and is probably worth more than the plating..
Maybe one of those facilities have a way to separate out metallic particles from its production line.
That output might be worth a look,but if there is a heir's breath of value you can be sure they will already have a twenty-year mortgage levered against the output.


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## canedane (Jun 4, 2016)

0,20 euro -kilo.Most of the recycling companies in Germany only pay 0.05 euro.
http://www.mendener-recycling.de/84
Henrik


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## alexxx (Jun 4, 2016)

No doubt, you can find someone who recycles PolyCarbonate (PC) in your area. Chinese buyers are paying around $0.15 / Lb in small quantities. You could find a decent bulk buyer for $0.22 - 0.25 / Lb if you search a bit.

Alex


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## Wingedcloud (Aug 13, 2016)

Regarding gold cd's i had a couple as shown in the picture.
Processed directly in AR and the wield was minimal (cant even quantify it).

Winged


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## goldsilverpro (Aug 13, 2016)

> Processed directly in AR and the wield was minimal (cant even quantify it).


Can you see it?


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## Wingedcloud (Aug 14, 2016)

Actually, I can.
After I added SMB to the AR, I couldn't see any visible reaction. But I thought to myself: "Won't hurt if I leave this here till tomorrow and see what happens."
The next day, the container's bottom was coated with a very thin layer of that beautiful powder we all like to see. Filtered, but it's a very small amount. After filtering, it was as if my filter was sprinkled with gold powder x)

Winged


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## Westerngs (Aug 15, 2016)

used to recover Au from Au cd's by the gaylord box full. Dissolved the layer covering the Au in NaOH, Au flaked off the polycarbonate layer. Au can be collected via filtration (very difficult) or centrifuge (much easier).

It was so long ago I can't now remember the yield. But, it paid back when Au was in the $300 range so I imagine it still pays.


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## Snowmeow (May 4, 2017)

I am trying a safer method to rip off the reflective layer from CDs and DVDs It's WAY slower, but I have not hurry.
I put some CDs in a bucket with 50% water and 50% clorox and will let decanting during a week. Got some clean CDs in 3 days, with solution of >80% water and <20% clorox.
If the results be more favorable, I'll try a 100% clorox solution.

For first instance, I am accumulating material to process, when the ice cream box be full of the material, so I will process it. There are broken and damaged CDs/DVDs everywhere in my city's streets.


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## snoman701 (May 5, 2017)

justinhcase said:


> Polycarbonates are fully recyclable they are made from a natural resource (oil) it provides an excellent yield for plastic recycling facilities. The usual process for recycling polycarbonate is to sort, shred, wash, granulate and then compound ready for re-use and is probably worth more than the plating..
> Maybe one of those facilities have a way to separate out metallic particles from its production line.
> That output might be worth a look,but if there is a heir's breath of value you can be sure they will already have a twenty-year mortgage levered against the output.



I used to work for a joint venture between General Electric and Bayer. GE in USA and Bayer in EU.

They pumped millions of dollars in to trying to develop the technology to replace all of the glass in automobiles with polycarbonate. They wanted a turnkey system that they could then GIVE to the automotive industry. 

All the automotive industry had to do was use it...and buy their resin from the worlds two largest polycarbonate suppliers. GE and Bayer.


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## rickbb (May 10, 2017)

When I worked for a CD manufacture, (back in the 90's), we shipped all our poly waste back to Bayer. But it had to be clean and clear, nothing with metal on it. They paid well for it, but optical quality poly was not cheap to begin with. 

At our peak we were mashing out over a million and a half discs a day and never once did we use silver on them. It was all aluminum with the very occasional gold run. 

The gold sputtering targets were kept in a safe and when they were hung on the molding line an armed guard had to be within sight of them at all times. Can't imagine why, a couple of 10 lb slabs of pure gold out in the open in a factory full of minimum wage production employees might have been too much of a temptation for some of them. 

The clear coating over the metal is a thin layer of UV curable lacquer. Fairly durable and hard stuff. I'd be more likely to think the soak in a caustic solution is just breaking the bond down on the poly side and lets the lacquer with the gold attached fall away. Similar to what happens with silver infused ink on keyboard Mylars.


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