The second life of LCD's monitors...

LCD monitors are more recent than CRTs, they have a higher resolution and are much more light. However they are also very sensitive, easier to scratch and to break.


At Good Point Recycling, José is in charge of sorting LCD monitors and of demanufacturing them. This article illustrates what can be done with LCDs... which is very similar to what happens with CRTs.

Figure 1. Monitors arrived as bulk products.

 LCD's monitors arrival

 They arrived as bulk products at GPR, very often misplaced as shows figure 1 and that rises the broken rate and so decreases the reuse rate.

LCDs sorting

35% of LCDs are reusable according to GPR. To check the condition of LCDs, we plug in LCD's one by one. That shows if the screen is not broken or scratched.

35% will be resale to be reuse  = REUSE

65% will be demanufactured by José, residues will be resaled to be recycled = RECYCLING

Figure 2. LCD's monitors in good condition, will be reuse.

Reuse

The LCD's monitors in good condition are often sold in other countries, instead of staying in USA, where the demand of second hand products is important. The LCD's packaging has to be meticulous to avoid damages. As we can see in the middle of figure 2, LCDs are linked up 2 by 2 to avoid shock or impact on the sensitive part of the monitor.

Recycling

Figure 3. LCD's monitors in bad condition, will be demanufactured and after recycling.

Figure 4. [Part 1] Demanufacture a LCD's monitor in 13 steps.

Figure 4 shows how to demanufacture an LCD's monitor. The following part is the detailed description :

1. LCDs before demanufacture

2. Unscrew with an electric screwdriver

3. Remove the plastic socle by using leverage!

4.Unscrew

5. Hit the side screen with a hammer, so that it is easier and quicker to separate the plastic case and the one which contains the main printed circuit board

6. The plastic case and the one with the circuit board are separated

7.Unscrew

Figure 4. [Part 2] Demanufacture a LCD's monitor in 13 steps.

8. Opening the case where there is the main circuit board

9.Unscrew

10. Recovery of a secondary circuit board

11.  Recovery of another circuit board

12. Opening of the case containing plastic sheets and the glass screen

13. The glass and the plastic sheets

Residues

These different steps allow to separate the different residues which will be resold and then be recycled. The CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) tube and the plastic sheets have to be take in charge by an authorized recycler, GPR has to pay them so it is a negative cost (see on figure 6). The different residues are shown on figure 5 and 6.

Figure 5. Residues of a LCD monitor.