Products and materials.

Laptop components

A laptop combines a lithium-ion battery, a logic board, solid-state storage, cooling and speakers. Each is its own material stream, and the battery needs particular care.

On this design the components hang beneath the keyboard deck, so the bottom cover comes off to reach them.

The battery is the largest single part. Keep lithium-ion batteries intact and use a collection program that accepts your device.

Storage holds data. This design uses a solid-state drive; protect your data before reuse or recycling.

The fan, copper heat pipe and logic board are separate streams. Small speakers use magnets; whether they are rare-earth depends on the design.

Magnets in small speakers

Rare-earth magnet applications include speakers. Whether a specific laptop speaker uses one, and which alloy, depends on its design.

Separating the speakers from the battery and circuit boards keeps each material stream intact.

How magnets can be recovered

1. Collected. Magnets from many products are gathered for recovery, once each product’s data, safety and handling requirements are met.
2. Broken down. Mechanical processing breaks magnets into fragments and granules.
3. Refined. Refining separates the rare-earth elements, typically as oxides. Iron and other materials leave as a separate stream.
4. Made new. Oxides can be converted to metals and alloys, then made into new magnets. Each is a separate industrial stage.