CD(s) - DVD(s) - Blueray Disc

[GuyGuyGuythe1st]

Posing a question to the thread. Do any regular disc in the title contain PM(s) for refining?

If yes, what type of metals are used in the manufacturing process?

If no, what is the metallic materials used?

Is it worth collecting and processing or not is the question….

 

[rickbb]

No, aluminum and the amount is microscopically small. So no not worth a plug nickel.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Well there are archival discs for long lasting storage, they have Silver or Gold, but microscopical amounts anyway.

 

[orvi]

It takes very little metal to create shiny opaque layer on the plastic of CD. Few hundreds of atoms thick is enough. And metal is usually aluminium. Not much to be recovered

 

[GuyGuyGuythe1st]

I’ve heard silver and gold on some disc I was gaging how much. Seems to be not worth it. I have a ton of disc and 3 1/2inch floppies. Glad I asked before I wasted chemicals and time.

 

[DaddyD]

You know it seems you are always not much there not much fooling with in gold prospecting we have what we call flower gold but we also say it all adds up anything is worth fooling with

 

[Yggdrasil]

You know it seems you are always not much there not much fooling with in gold prospecting we have what we call flower gold but we also say it all adds up anything is worth fooling with

Well in this respect I think its true.
The archival discs with gold or silver are very rare. I bought one box a long time ago and they were expensive.
So I'd guess less than one on a thousand discs may be of this quality.
And they are probably in micrograms pr disc.
You can easily enough get the PMs but it will cost you much more than what you can reclaim.
Unless you can find a reliable source for discs, that is.

And it is not flower gold, flour gold because it is as fine as the finest flour. And here too, the shear volume is what makes it work.

 

[rickbb]

I used to work in a factory that made discs, we had a few customers that wanted gold ones. I can guarantee you with absolute certainty that in a ton of gold discs you won't have more than one gram of gold.

The gold, (and all the other metals/minerals used on various discs), is vapor deposited in such a thin layer it can only be measured in it's light opacity with 70% reflectively being the target. You can hold a disc up to the light and read through it, that's how thin it is.

On top of that it's held down with a very hard UV cured lacquer. Any recovery method would involve some highly dangerous solvent to melt the lacquer, etc.

The only value they have is the plastic, optical grade polycarbonate can be recycled into other hard plastic products. But since we "won" the trade war with China and they stopped buying all our scrap plastic, good luck finding a buyer for it.