Yang Po-keng, deputy chief of the Sustainable Development Division of MOEA’s Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), said the WRC procures selected recyclable and metal-bearing industrial residue as raw material in the production of metal concentrates that are sold to metal producers internationally.

The Taiwan branch,Yang said,will procure metal-bearing industrial sludge from local electronic plants, electroplating plants and waste water plants, and make ingots for use by metal producers in America, Yang said.

According to Yang, the technology, economy scale and waste resources involved with metal recycling have become crucial areas of competitiveness development for recycling firms, as metal recycling has become an important alternative to mining for ever-scarcer mineral resources.

Japanese companies are also paying close attention to the development of the metal recycling technology. Tanaka Precious Metals, a Japanese metal manufacturer and distributor at the Hukou Industrial Park in Hsinchu County in northern Taiwan, can extract 99.99 percent pure industrial gold from waste sludge from electronic plants, Yang said.