the green metal

The Green Metal

Tin is fast adopting a tag as the Green Metal, primarily due to its benign properties and impact on the health and welfare of humans, flora and fauna and the environment.
The proliferation in recent years of electronic devices such as computers and mobile phones there has been significant regulatory and industry focus on the recycling of these devices. Metals such as Aluminum, Steel and Tin can be extracted and recycled. Hazardous materials including toxins such as, Lead, Mercury, Arsenic and cadmium are potentials by-products of electronics recovery and this is leading to the substitution of Tin for Lead in solders.

A universal shift by the electronics industry to lead-free solders has began with latest estimates indicating an appropriate 60% uptake and tin solders moving from approximately 30% of total tin consumption to 50% of total tin consumption over a three year period. In the same period world tin consumption has been growing at a rate of approximately 10% year on year.