Can you tell me what the sources of precious metal waste are?

What are the sources of precious metal scraps? My friends often ask me this question. A wide variety of precious metals can be found in today's society, including jewelry made from precious metals, alloys for industrial purposes, and a variety of compounds based on precious metals. Today, let's talk about the general source of precious metal scrap.  
Based on the source, precious metal scrap can be roughly divided into three types.
 
The first is the waste and leftovers produced by factories during production or manufacturing. For example, those containing platinum include platinum wire, platinum sheet, thermocouple, ternary platinum mesh, platinum mesh ash, nitric acid oxidation furnace ash, etc.; those containing gold include gold polishing ash, gold wire, etc., and those containing silver include silver composite materials , various films, silver-zinc batteries, silver-cadmium silver liquid, silver electrodes and silver-containing capacitors, etc.; palladium-containing palladium scrap contacts, palladium scrap composites, palladium tubes, palladium sheets and so on. Under normal circumstances, most of these wastes are handled and recycled by the production units themselves.
 
The second is that the product containing precious metals has deteriorated performance or the appearance is damaged and cannot be used continuously after use, and the waste needs to be recycled and processed. There are generally invalid reforming catalysts, as well as various waste compounds, waste liquids, and slag containing platinum and palladium. Such as palladium carbon waste, platinum carbon waste and various deactivated catalysts, etc.  
 
The third type is some precious metal-containing products that have lost their use value and are scattered in the hands of consumers. For example, jewelry, or components containing precious metals in mobile phones, computers, and electrical appliances, as well as car exhaust pipes on scrapped cars, the three-way catalyst inside contains precious metals such as platinum, palladium, and rhodium. The characteristic of this kind of waste is that a single piece does not contain much precious metal, but it also has a very high recycling value when concentrated. Generally, there are specialized middlemen to recycle these wastes, and then send them to our recycling factory for processing and purification.
 
The sources of precious metal scrap can be roughly divided into the above three types. Because the physical and chemical properties of precious metals are very stable, even if these precious metal-containing materials lose their performance, they still have recycling value.