2026.08.19 – Dr Karl Kruszelnicki – Wednesday’s with Dr Karl
1) Solar panels (like most “waste”) should be recycled.
In 2025, Australia generated 60,000 tonnes of solar panel waste. The metallic parts of a solar panel are aluminium, and are very easily recycled. The rest (the blue parts) are 95% glass and about 5% solar cell. The glass can be easily recycled. Silver is used as a paste on the front and the back of the solar cells as a conductor. The silver used on solar cells makes up 30% of current silver consumption. An old technology (froth flotation) can easily recover 98% of this silver.
Solar panel waste (60,000 tonnes per year in Oz) makes up one…
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