The European Commission and European Parliament are influenced by the commercial interests of companies within the EU, as well as by voters who have no basis upon which to make a judgment but will accept the opinions of the ruling class. The Commission and Parliament are very cognizant of global competition for products, revenues and jobs, and are very willing to use their laws to influence that competition. An attack upon Microsoft by a political body in the EU should not be given the credibility that this posting seems to presume.
The Chinese university method does not seem particularly new, and not particularly good for the environment. It seems to involve very intensive shredding and pulverizing processes, using an enormous amount of energy, to mechanically convert circuit boards into particles so minute that metal and non-metal, tightly bonded together in the board, can be separated by further mechanical processing. The production of pure metals using such processes is, in laboratory settings, theoretically possible, but it would be enormously expensive, and the use of energy, presumably supplied by the coal-fired Chinese electrical infrastructure, would emit metals (e.g. mercury, beryllium) in large amounts, in addition to carbon dioxide. A well controlled copper smelter - and there are a few - followed by refining processes, is likely to be much more efficient and less polluting over a broad environmental view, as well as productive of more metal recovery.
The WTO generally mandates open economic markets, but does not apply those rules to government procurement, so the government of any country can buy from any source, or refuse to buy from any source.
The General Motors concept fuel cell car, also about 75 kW, uses 75 grams of platinum. That is a current ballpark standard, one gram of platinum per kW of power. At current market prices, 75 grams of platinum sells for about $2000. If you want to recover that value from a fuel cell, you have to first remove it from the fuel cell's anode and cathode, and then refine it to market purity. If one fuel cell with 75 grams is all you have, someone in the reclaim industry will buy the fuel cell from you for less than one hundred dollars. So do not buy the car thinking that you will make a killing in the precious metals market.
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The European Commission and European Parliament are influenced by the commercial interests of companies within the EU, as well as by voters who have no basis upon which to make a judgment but will accept the opinions of the ruling class. The Commission and Parliament are very cognizant of global competition for products, revenues and jobs, and are very willing to use their laws to influence that competition. An attack upon Microsoft by a political body in the EU should not be given the credibility that this posting seems to presume.
The Chinese university method does not seem particularly new, and not particularly good for the environment. It seems to involve very intensive shredding and pulverizing processes, using an enormous amount of energy, to mechanically convert circuit boards into particles so minute that metal and non-metal, tightly bonded together in the board, can be separated by further mechanical processing. The production of pure metals using such processes is, in laboratory settings, theoretically possible, but it would be enormously expensive, and the use of energy, presumably supplied by the coal-fired Chinese electrical infrastructure, would emit metals (e.g. mercury, beryllium) in large amounts, in addition to carbon dioxide. A well controlled copper smelter - and there are a few - followed by refining processes, is likely to be much more efficient and less polluting over a broad environmental view, as well as productive of more metal recovery.
China is not a member of the GPA, only an observer.
The WTO generally mandates open economic markets, but does not apply those rules to government procurement, so the government of any country can buy from any source, or refuse to buy from any source.
The General Motors concept fuel cell car, also about 75 kW, uses 75 grams of platinum. That is a current ballpark standard, one gram of platinum per kW of power. At current market prices, 75 grams of platinum sells for about $2000. If you want to recover that value from a fuel cell, you have to first remove it from the fuel cell's anode and cathode, and then refine it to market purity. If one fuel cell with 75 grams is all you have, someone in the reclaim industry will buy the fuel cell from you for less than one hundred dollars. So do not buy the car thinking that you will make a killing in the precious metals market.