What is inside a game console?

A game console is a compact computer: one large main board under a heat sink, a power supply, a cooling fan and, in some models, a disc drive or a hard drive. The main board is what makes it worth recovering, because that is where its precious metals are; the chassis and the heat sink add steel, aluminum and copper.¹

Drawing of a representative living-room game console, not a specific product, standing on its stand with its near side panel removed and a controller beside it. Inside: the main board with the processor under a copper heat sink and heat pipes; a large blower fan with its hub cap cut away to show the ring magnet in its brushless motor; the optical disc drive, cover off, with the disc on a small spindle motor and the laser pickup with the two tiny magnets of its focus and tracking actuator; an M.2 SSD and the power supply. One controller grip is cut open to show its rumble motor, its two curved magnets and its off-center weight. — A representative game console standing with its side panel off, beside a controller with one grip cut open. It is drawn with a disc drive, which many current consoles no longer have; the main board, the heat sink, the fan and the power supply fill the rest of the case.

Materials in a game console

Main materials
Material	Where it sits
SteelMost of its weight	Chassis, shields and disc drive housing
Copper	Heat sink, heat pipes and tracks
Aluminum	Heat sink fins and shields

Trace materials
Material	Where it sits
Tin	Solder across the main board
Silicon	Processor, memory and storage chips
Gold	Processor and connector contacts
Silver	Solder and board finishes
Palladium	Ceramic capacitors on the main board
Tantalum	Capacitors near the processor
Rare earths	Fan, disc drive and rumble magnets
Gallium	Laser diode in the disc drive

What a game console of this kind most likely holds. Amounts are given in words, not weights, because content depends on the design.

How a game console is recycled

A console stores accounts and saved games, so it is reset, or its drive is removed, before it is handed over.² A recycler typically opens the case and lifts out the main board, which is graded with other boards and sent to a copper smelter; there the copper gathers the gold, silver and palladium, and refining separates them.³ The steel chassis and shields are pulled from the shredded remainder by magnets and the aluminum fins by eddy-current separators, and the copper of the heat sink and heat pipes goes on to be smelted and refined.⁴⁵ Its magnets are small ones, in the fan, the disc drive and the rumble motors of the controllers. A console with a hard disk drive is the exception: that drive carries a pair of stronger magnets, commonly neodymium, and it can be taken out whole so that they are separated from the rest.⁶⁷ The tantalum in its capacitors and the gallium in its laser diode are among the metals rarely recovered from old products.⁸

More on each stream: precious metals, copper, steel and aluminum, magnet rare earths.

Find it in the games and recycle it

Mine the houseGame console (living room)
Sort the device wallGame console (personal electronics)
Find a recycling program near youCheck what the program accepts before you go.

Sources

Gold Statistics and InformationUS Geological Survey, National Minerals Information Center, Overview paragraph at the top of the page
Electronics Donation and RecyclingUS EPA, Before Donating or Recycling Your Used Electronics; Where to Donate or Recycle
Metal Recycling: Opportunities, Limits, InfrastructureUnited Nations Environment Programme, International Resource Panel (2013)
Metal Recycling: Opportunities, Limits, InfrastructureUnited Nations Environment Programme, International Resource Panel (2013)
AP-42, Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors, Section 12.9: Secondary Copper SmeltingU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Section 12.9.2.2 'Smelting', pages 12.9-1 and 12.9-3
Rare earth elements, end use and recyclabilityUSGS
Rare Earth Permanent Magnets: Supply Chain Deep Dive AssessmentUS Department of Energy, Section 2.2.5.1, printed page 20
Recycling Rates of Metals: A Status ReportUnited Nations Environment Programme, International Resource Panel (2011), Appendix F, Table F1 and accompanying text, pp. 35-37 (gallium, indium, tantalum, tungsten); Appendix D, Table D1, p. 31 (tin); main text, p. 18

Reviewed November 14, 2026