Copper in electronics: where it sits and how it is recovered
Copper is in nearly every electrical product, wherever current has to move: windings, cables and the tracks of circuit boards. It can be recycled repeatedly, and scrap is already a regular part of the copper supply.
This page describes industry and research processes in general. It does not describe ERI’s operations.
Why copper is recovered
Why copper is recovered
Copper is one of the few materials that can be recycled again and again without losing performance. According to the International Copper Association, an industry body, recycled copper is the same quality as newly mined copper, so the two can be used interchangeably, and recycling takes less energy than producing copper from ore. The association reports that about 32 percent of the copper used worldwide each year from 2009 to 2018 came from recycling, counting both manufacturing scrap and discarded products. Recycling alone cannot meet demand, because demand keeps growing and most copper stays in use for decades before it can be recovered.1
How much of the US copper supply comes from scrap
Scrap is a regular part of the United States copper supply. The US Geological Survey estimates that in 2025 old scrap, meaning copper from products discarded after use, provided about 160,000 metric tons of copper. New scrap, meaning leftover material from manufacturing, provided about 760,000 metric tons. Together, copper recovered from scrap contributed about 30 percent of the US copper supply that year. Brass mills and wire-rod mills accounted for roughly 80 percent of the copper recovered from scrap, with the rest recovered by refineries, foundries and other manufacturers.2
Where it sits
Where copper sits in electronics and electrical equipment
Copper is in electronics mainly because of how well it carries electricity. The US Geological Survey notes that, after silver, copper has the highest electrical conductivity of any metal, about 95 percent of silver's, at a small fraction of silver's price. That makes it the preferred conductor for building wire, telecommunications cable, the magnet wire used in windings, and the conductors on printed circuit boards. Copper is also strong and ductile enough for these jobs at normal operating temperatures, and small amounts of other elements are often added when more strength is needed.3
How much copper is in the world's electronic waste
The Global E-waste Monitor 2024 estimates that the electronic waste generated worldwide in 2022 contained about 2.1 billion kilograms of copper. Among metals in e-waste, only iron and steel and aluminum were present in larger amounts. About 1 billion kilograms of the copper was in small equipment, in its cables and printed circuit boards. About 500 million kilograms was in temperature exchange equipment, the category that covers cooling appliances, in compressors and cables. The report values the copper in 2022 e-waste at about 19 billion US dollars, more than any other metal.4
Which devices hold copper
| Device | Where the copper sits | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Cordless drill | Stator windings and board tracks | A real share |
| E-bike | Stator windings and motor leads | A real share |
| Game console | Heat sink, heat pipes and tracks | A real share |
| Robot vacuum | Windings of its six motors | A real share |
| Flat-screen TV | Power supply, cables and speaker coils | A real share |
| Hard disk drive | Voice coils and spindle windings | A real share |
| Smartwatch | Charging coils and board tracks | A real share |
| Wireless earbuds | Voice coils, tracks and charging pins | A real share |
| Solar panels | Ribbons, bus bars and junction-box cable | A real share |
| Circuit boards | Tracks, inner layers and connector pins | A real share |
| Headphones | Voice coils, cable and tracks | A real share |
| Laptop | Heat pipe, heat spreader and tracks | A real share |
| Smartphone | Charging coil, tracks and shields | A real share |
| Enterprise server | Power supplies, cabling and board tracks | A real share |
How it is recovered
How cable and wire are processed
Insulated wire has to be separated into metal and plastic before the copper can be reused. The US Geological Survey describes copper wire scrap as roughly 60 percent metal and 40 percent plastic insulation. In industrial plants the wire is commonly chopped very finely, and the resulting mix of plastic and metal particles is passed over a fluidized bed, where the lighter insulation is carried off and the copper stays behind. Cable can instead be fed through a stripping machine that peels the insulation from the wire, which is slower. The copper that results is usually a high-quality scrap that can go to a melting furnace.3
How copper is separated from shredded electronics
Electronics that cannot be reused are typically sorted and dismantled first, and the remaining scrap is shredded and screened to reduce it to small pieces. The shredded material then passes through a series of separators. Magnetic separation is used to take out iron and steel. Eddy-current separation is used to sort non-ferrous metals from non-metals. Density-based methods are then used to separate metallic from non-metallic material. The metal-rich fractions go on to metallurgical processing, such as smelting, to produce pure metals. The exact sequence varies with the plant and the material.5
Grades of copper scrap in plain words
Copper scrap is traded in grades that reflect how pure it is, and the grade largely decides where it goes next. The US Geological Survey reports that the scrap recycling trade association recognizes about 53 classes of copper and copper alloy scrap. In the survey's summary table, No. 1 copper is unalloyed scrap of about 99.5 percent copper, used mainly by brass mills and wire-rod mills. No. 2 copper is about 96.8 percent copper and goes mainly to fire refiners and ingot makers. Brass and bronze scrap are graded separately by alloy. Low-grade copper-bearing material is listed at about 40 percent copper.3
Smelting and refining copper scrap
Low-grade copper scrap is typically melted in a furnace, which separates impure copper from a waste layer called slag. In later furnace steps, air is blown through the molten metal with a flux so that impurities oxidize and are removed, bringing the copper to about 99 percent purity. This fire-refined copper is cast into plates called anodes. In electrolytic refining, the anodes sit in a solution of sulfuric acid and copper sulfate. Copper dissolves from the anode and deposits on a cathode at up to 99.99 percent purity. The US EPA notes that the first furnace stages may be skipped when scrap averages more than about 90 percent copper.6
What makes copper recovery hard
Copper scrap rarely arrives clean. The US EPA notes that much of the scrap fed to secondary copper smelters also contains metals such as zinc, lead, nickel and cadmium. Zinc boils off in the furnace and forms a very fine oxide dust, and the other metals end up in dust that smelters must capture, most effectively with fabric filters. Insulation is another problem. Burning it off wire produces large amounts of smoke from partly burned plastic, and chlorinated plastics such as PVC also give off hydrogen chloride gas. Plant afterburners do not remove that gas, so burning cable in the open is harmful and not a safe way to recover copper.6
Which devices feed this stream
These are sorted for copper when they are recycled. Each page says what the device holds and where.
Sources
- Copper RecyclingInternational Copper Association (industry body), Page 1, sections 'Copper is 100% Recyclable' and 'Recycling Reduces CO2 Emissions and Energy Use'; page 2 callout (26.7 million tonnes used per year 2009-2018, 32 percent from recycling); page 3, Table 1, 'Recycling Input Rate (RIR) 32%' (end-of-life plus new scrap, global, 2009-2018); page 4, 'Summary'
- Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: CopperU.S. Geological Survey, First page of the copper chapter, 'Recycling' paragraph, with footnotes 1 and 5 on the second page
- Copper Recycling in the United States in 2004 (U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1196-X)U.S. Geological Survey
- The Global E-waste Monitor 2024International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), Page 44, Chapter 6 'Recovery of Valuable and Critical Metals' (quantities); page 52, Chapter 9, Figure 22 'Economic Value of Metals from E-waste' (USD 19 billion)
- Current recycling innovations to utilize e-waste in sustainable green metal manufacturingPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, vol. 382, 2024, doi:10.1098/rsta.2023.0239 (peer-reviewed, open access, CC BY 4.0; PubMed Central copy PMC11531906), Section 3 'E-waste recycling strategies for metal extraction', subsection (a) 'Pretreatment'
- AP-42, Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors, Section 12.9: Secondary Copper SmeltingU.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Reviewed