Recycling-Oriented Characterisation of End-of-Life LED Display Panels

Energy savings and environmental considerations have led the European Union to ban inefficient lighting, such as incandescent and halogen bulbs, resulting in a massive adoption of Light-Emitting Diode (LED) technology. This shift from conventional lighting to LED lighting observed on a great diversity of application (automotive lighting, television, mobile phones, display panels, etc.) goes hand-in-hand with a more complex design and the need of valuable metals such as Au, Ag, and Cu and critical raw materials (CRM) among which are gallium, indium, and rare earth elements (REEs). That expansion of LED-based products will eventually contribute to a significant amount of specific e-waste that will soon require proper collection strategies and suitable and economic recycling routes yet to be developed. To this end, a detailed and process-oriented characterisation is essential.