A cryptocurrency mining rig (photo courtesy of Filmar Technologies)[/caption]
When Serdar Bankaci went looking for a graphics card recently, he found frustration instead.
"I personally was looking for a graphics card for gaming for myself, and I couldn't find anything," he said.
The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about how changing smartphone markets are opening up business opportunities in the used phone sector.
The second half of 2017 saw e-scrap revenues rise for Sims Recycling Solutions, while profits fell due to European market pressures.
SRS, the electronics recycling wing of publicly traded Sims Metal Management, brought in 365 million Australian dollars (currently about $284 million) between July 1 and Dec.
A Samsung lithium-ion battery manufacturing subsidiary is exploring investment in recycling companies to recover cobalt and other materials, as demand climbs for the metals.
Samsung SDI, which makes automotive and small-form lithium-ion batteries, is looking to solidify a long-term supply of cobalt amid skyrocketin
Credit: Maurizio Targhetta[/caption]
Market analysts say 2018 could be a golden year - or perhaps a silver and platinum one - for the prices of precious metals recovered from scrap electronics.
A 
Credit: Pekka Niemi/Kuusakoski[/caption]
Finnish recycling company Kuusakoski has refined its method for processing a key component of MRI machines and is now producing distinct streams of high-grade metals.
Most of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machi
Credit: Joao Estevao A.
Credit: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock[/caption]
The recycling industry has not escaped the fallout from a tight trucking market.
Jim Levine and Neil Peters-Michaud at E-Scrap 2017. Photo credit: 
A Houston company's rare earth element recovery technologies could mean another future revenue stream for electronics processors.
Startup company REEcycle has developed a chemical recycling process that extracts neodymium and dysprosium from magnets, including those used in electronics.
As it works to refine that process, the company is