Recycling strategies of waste LED display panels: environmental and economic assessment

With the large-scale application of Light-Emitting Diode (LED) display screens, waste LED panels are increasing rapidly. These panels contain plastics and valuable metals, including copper (Cu), gold (Au), silver (Ag), and gallium (Ga), indicating considerable recycling potential. In this study, an integrated life cycle assessment (LCA)-life cycle costing (LCC) framework was established to evaluate the environmental and economic performance of different recycling strategies. A comprehensive environmental-economic evaluation framework was further applied to compare the overall performance of alternative recycling strategies. The results indicate significant differences among different LED bead recycling strategies. Cu recovery from LED beads shows the highest carbon reduction benefit, reaching − 1.62 × 10 3 kg CO 2 -eq, while Ga or Au/Ag recovery decreases environmental benefits due to higher energy and chemical consumption. Within the defined assessment boundary, combined Cu, Ga, Au, and Ag recovery with roasting-enrichment pre-treatment achieves the largest total normalized environmental benefit of 1030.50Pt and the highest economic benefit of CNY 14,073. However, LED bead recycling is also the largest cost contributor. The integrated environmental-economic evaluation indicates that Cu recovery from LED beads with roasting-enrichment pre-treatment provides the best balance between environmental and economic performance under the defined assessment boundary and current technological conditions.