[quickben]

Interesting. So what do they do with the materials afterwards? Landfill or melting or?

[dodobirdlord]

Probably varies depending on stage. Wafers are very pure silicon, so the ones that haven't yet been contaminated with trace elements would probably be melted down for reuse. Wafers later in the process are probably carrying a lot of material (gold/silver/platinum, maybe iridium, some heavy metals?) that would be worth salvaging in bulk.