The chips should be pyrolyzed before being incinerated. This removes the nasty chemicals used in their production by heating them (without oxygen) to where the chemicals turn to a gas. The gas can then be treated by chemical wash or by an afterburner to destroy the toxic fumes. Your friends and neighbors will thank you.
HCl and bleach (HCl + NaClO) just plain didn't work for me when I was trying to dissolve small gold nuggets. In fact, I still have a bunch of the nuggets laying around in my garage. They did partly dissolve, and then turned from a pretty golden color to black. I assume, maybe if I ever learn enough, I'll be able to further process (maybe melt them and then cornflake them) these to recover the last bits of gold. Having said that, HCl and bleach did work quite well when I used it on circuit board foils. Something not shown on the forum very often is that most acids have an additional chemical added to the end of their chemical formula (H2O). I have never heard of it being problematic unless the acid is diluted too much. Then, it slows down the reaction, but the final reaction is more efficient. When dealing with silver and HNO3, usually it HAS to be diluted to make it work better.
HCl and bleach: 1. Easier to get (and cheaper) than HNO3. 2. Does NOT add nitric to the solution which will need to be removed later. 3. Is great for recovery, but for final refining, you should use AR. 4. It does add sodium to your final solution which usually doesn't cause problems like tin and/or lead do.
AR: (HCl + HNO3) 1. Works well all the time (I personally haven't heard of it not working, but I suppose it's possible). 2. Probably works faster than HCl and bleach. 3. Add nitrogen to the solution, but not any additional metals such as sodium. 4. Is the solution of choice for final refining.
