Industrial sourcing · China to Europe

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Buyer guide · Recycling

E waste separation line from China

An e-waste separation line is bought for the metal it recovers, and no listing we checked stated a recovery figure or a throughput, so the number that decides the business is the one you must measure yourself.

Ask about this machine ↗Where the numbers come from

Written and listings checked 1 October 2026. Every figure on this page names its source.

What you are actually comparing.

Two quotes, one machine name

What hides inside the price

Which e-waste the line is built for

Circuit board lines grind boards to powder and split metal from resin and glass fibre. Appliance lines break whole devices first. One line rarely does both.

How the metal leaves the plastic

Air tables, electrostatic, eddy current and water separators all appear under one name, and each catches a different fraction. Ask for the method at every step, in writing.

Depopulation and battery removal

Batteries, capacitors and lamps must come out before the shredder. Ask whether the offer includes a depopulation bench or nothing.

Crushing stages and fineness

More grinding stages free more copper from thin board layers but cost power and wear. Ask the stage count and the final particle size.

Dust and fume handling

Grinding boards makes fine resin, glass fibre and metal dust. Ask the filter type and whether the collector is priced in.

Before you ask for a price.

Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.

Your input by share: loose circuit boards, whole small appliances, cable, screens, mixed scrap.
Whether batteries and hazardous parts are removed before delivery to you, or arrive inside the devices.
The fractions you can sell and to whom: copper powder, mixed metal, plastic and resin, and their grade limits.
Tonnes per shift you need, measured on your own mix, and hours run per day.
Site power, floor area, building height and where the dust filter exhaust can go.

Turn the claim into a demonstration.

Require this	A pass looks like
Run a weighed batch of your own boards or devices through every stage of the line.	Metal, plastic and dust fractions each weighed, and the total of the fractions close to the weight you put in.
Send the metal and the non-metal fraction to an independent laboratory.	Metal content in the non-metal fraction at or below the limit your buyer accepts, written into the contract.
Time the batch from first feed to last fraction out.	Measured kilograms per hour on your mix at or above the figure written in the offer.

The documents that must arrive with it.

One EU Declaration of Conformity for the line as an assembly, under 2006/42/EC until 19 January 2027, then Regulation (EU) 2023/1230.
Low voltage 2014/35/EU and EMC 2014/30/EU references for the motors, separators and control panel.
A process flow diagram naming each separator and the fraction it takes out.

The one people forget. The dust collector's filter specification and the fire detection or suppression it has, which your insurer will ask for the first time a battery starts a fire in the shredder.

When this is the wrong machine.

Buy something else if

Named, not hedged

Most of what you receive is cable.

A cable recycling machine. Its granulator and air table are sized for wire, and it costs far less than a board line.

You receive mixed household or commercial waste that happens to contain some electronics.

A waste sorting line upstream, so electronics are picked out and sent on, instead of grinding everything together.

Where the numbers come from.

We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.

Listings · 11Eleven listings in one marketplace search for PCB recycling machines, checked October 2026, advertised asking prices from US$2,200 to US$159,000. None stated a throughput, a metal recovery rate or the separation method. Asking prices, not landed cost.
Listings · 11In the same eleven listings, checked October 2026, one title was a cable shredder and one a metal baler, so the search result mixes machines that do not separate boards.
GAPGAP - no supplier quotations logged for this machine yet. Three to five quotations for one configuration would give a real price spread.

Related machines.

Cable recycling machine. Choose a cable recycling machine when wire, not boards or appliances, makes up your input.
Waste sorting line. Put a waste sorting line first when electronics arrive mixed in with general waste.

Every machine we source in this area is on the Recycling page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.

Straight answers

Questions buyers ask about this machine.

Chinese vs European e-waste separation line: where is the difference?+

In the separators, dust and fire systems, and documented recovery. Send each maker the same board sample and compare the metal weighed back.

What should an e-waste separation line factory audit cover?+

A line of the same design running on real boards, which separators are made in house, guarding on the shredders, and how metal content in the output is tested.

What e-waste separation line CE documentation should I get?+

One Declaration of Conformity for the whole line, the manual in your language and the electrical drawings. A CE mark on one separator does not cover the line.

Who is the EU importer, and who holds the treatment permit?+

When you buy direct, your company is the importer and its name goes on the machine or documents. Treating waste electrical equipment is covered by the WEEE Directive 2012/19/EU and national permits, and that is the operator's matter, not the machine's.

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