Ecological and economical effects of lead-free soldering

The electronics industry is heading towards lead-free soldering. Cost, toxicity, energy consumption as well as resource depletion are issues of particular concern. These aspects were examined and compared to the conventional tin-lead technology. The results show that lead-free soldering will clearly reduce the material toxicity potential of PCBs. But it will also increase the energy consumption for the material production and, depending on the lead-free solders, for the soldering processes. Higher solder metal values, however, might boost PCB recycling and thus compensate the higher material energy consumption. It could be shown that, based on the available data and nowadays recycling processes, some lead-free solders will decrease recycling cost, but the higher energy consumption for lead-free soldering can not be compensated. Resource depletion should not be an obstacle against lead-free soldering.