Abstract
Although Korean domestic production of flat panel displays totalled more than 48 trillion KRW in 2007, most of the flat panel display wastes have been land-filled or incinerated, which greatly overshadows Korean national prestige as a world leading pro- ducer and developer of flat panel display devices. Countries such as Japan or EU possess quite limited land-fill capability and have sought ways to dispose of WEEEs from environment-friendly perspective rather than recovery of valuable materials from the wastes. Considering relatively short cycle of about 5 years for flat panel display devices, it is estimated that more than 5 mil- lion units will be accumulated as wastes by 2015. Urban mining is a most suitable countermeasures against China's monopoly of rare and rare earth metals, which are contained in flat panel display wastes. Therefore, materials recycling of waste LCD units has to be developed and commercialized soon enough for economic and environment-friendly recovery of valuable resources hidden in LCD wastes.
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