We proposed a new concept of the metal recycling system ( RtoS : “Reserve to Stock”, “artificial ore deposit design” ) in our previous paper.In the present paper, we have comprehensively examined the metal content of Japanese WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) by carrying out presumption from the quantity of products and others.Most of the metals in WEEE are disposed of, and become unrecoverable form in the land fill site, now.As a result, the annual amount of Japanese WEEE was calculated to be 19.4kg/person.The quantity was almost equivalent to the amount of discharge of the EU countries’ which is said to be about 20kg/person. Moreover, the four items of home electronics which are already recycled by law in Japan, made up for 30% of WEEE weight.
As for the annual amount of metals in WEEE, copper was found to be about 110,000t, lead is about 10,000t and zinc is about 20,000t.In addition, the amount of precious metals and rare metals are able to be presumed by the same method.Considering the value of each metal and the impact of an ecological rucksack, it is a serious problem that these metals are disposed of without any recovery.Especially, the large volume of rare metals has already been consumed to EEE.If any recovery system is not taken into consideration, rare metals will dissipate all over the land in the future.In the case of WEEE, however, when Cu, Au, and Ag are collected for recycling, rare metals can also be gathered with them.If rare metals are separated from WEEE by proper technique and are accumulated for reservation, we can consider them as resources.We showed a possibility of rare metals recycling that could have a self-supporting economical system by devising the collection system and by changing the recycling system related with a commercial transaction.