Recently, I posted this blog about inexpensive PCBs being a boon for hobbyists. I myself have benefited greatly from being able to turn my designs into reality and learn-as-I-go.
But there is a flip-side to everything - as it is so cheap, I often do end up making mistakes (unintentionally, of course) and they get manufactured and shipped all the way to me. Other times, the minimum order quantity means I have an extra few boards of a design I might not ever rebuild as it may have deficiencies or is just a one-off design to solve a one-off problem.
That brings me to the obvious question - what does one do with this ever-growing mountain of PCBs filled with paints, copper, fibreglass, etc?
Sometimes I have "bodge-wired" elements from boards to turn them into inelegant breakout boards, rewired certain sections to turn them into a new project. Or perhaps used them as spacers/shims for wobbly tables, as art, or as a piece of scrap to protect my bench. But even these applications quickly run out if one makes quite a few boards ...
So is there a better thing to do with them? I'm not sure they're really recycled? I know ENIG/ENEPIG boards often get coveted by those looking to extract gold, but what about the humble low-cost HASL boards? It would just feel a bit of a shame to be contributing to the "e-waste" problem, even if it wasn't immediately financially ruinous.
