Original article Total Telecom:Read More
Press Release
Bioscope’s patented bioleaching solution delivers sustainable, high value returns
Cambridge, UK – 25 March 2025: Bioscope Technologies is pleased to announce Techbuyer, an established international provider of ICT equipment refurbishment, resale and disposal services, as an early adopter of its e-waste bioleaching solution.
This follows Techbuyer’s desire to find sustainable solutions for end of life ICT equipment. During the past 12 months the company has been supplying printed circuit boards (PCBs) to Bioscope’s Cambridge-based bio-refinery to enable the recovery of high quality precious and base metals using Bioscope’s patented bioleaching processes.
“When I heard how Bioscope were exploring how bioleaching can be used to recover PM & CRMs from e-waste, I knew we would want to be involved as part of our commitment to emerging technologies,” said Paul Thorogood, Resource Recovery Manager. “Being a part of the journey right from the start means we are perfectly placed to see how the technology develops over time.”
Astrid Wynne, Techbuyer’s Head of Sustainability and Public Sector, added: “Techbuyer has been dedicated to furthering the Circular Economy for many years. We achieve this by not only improving our processes for extending product life but also by supporting better processes at end-of-life. Bioscope is a great recycling partner for Techbuyer because they are at the cutting edge of improving material recovery at end of life for IT hardware. Their success is our success; it furthers the circular economy.
“Many of the rarest materials in ICT are in trace amounts – amalgams and coatings – which means they are destroyed by traditional recycling technologies. We know from our work with the CEDaCI project that this can be improved with new technologies like bioleaching, but recyclers working in this area need critical mass of materials to scale up.”
Bioscope’s patented bacteria-based bioleaching and bio-refining refining technologies are focused on recovering a wide range of precious and strategic metals including not only gold but also silver, palladium and copper from PCBs, providing UK companies with a highly sustainable and more profitable alternative to shipping PCB waste to refiners in Europe, Japan and USA.
Commented Jeff Borrman, CEO, Bioscope Technologies: “We are delighted to have Techbuyer as one of our first customers for our PCB bioleaching solution. We are also pleased with board yield rates in terms of metals recovered for achieving maximum market value.”
Notes to editors:
According to UK data[i], recycling one tonne of circuit boards can contain 40 to 800 times more gold and 30 to 40 times more copper than can be mined from one tonne of ore. Recycling the PCBs from a million discarded mobile phones can recover around 6,000kg of copper, 350kg of silver, 34kg of gold and 15kg of palladium…25 million mobile phones discarded in the UK each year.
The UK produces 6 million tonnes of e-waste a year. Only 30% of this UK e-waste is recycled with most of the PCBs recovered from this amount being exported to refineries in Europe, Far East or the US. The remainder ends up in landfill or in the hands of unlicensed recyclers.
About Bioscope Technologies
Harnessing the power of naturally occurring bacteria, Bioscope’s world-first bioleaching bio-refining methods deliver a cleaner, more sustainable way of recovering critical raw materials from end-of-life hardware devices used in enterprise and cloud computing. BT has been trialling the company’s bioleaching technology for several years to recover copper and gold from decommissioned telephone exchanges as well as copper from cabling.
About Techbuyer
Techbuyer helps businesses maximise their IT budgets by supplying cost-effective new and quality refurbished servers, storage, memory and networking equipment from over 150 brands including HPE, Dell, IBM and Cisco. Not only do we sell a large range of enterprise IT hardware, we also buy used parts and turn them into high quality refurbished IT equipment. Founded in 2005, Techbuyer has grown from a company run by just two people to a global organisation with multiple warehouse facilities located worldwide. We have decades of experience in buying used enterprise IT equipment and selling new and certified refurbished IT parts and have worked with thousands of organisations worldwide.
Further information:
Bioscope Technologies
+44 (0) 7979 595 828