IBM Corporation announced today that a new process for reclaiming silicon wafers has been developed at its Burlington, Vermont facility.

 Until now, silicon wafers have been scrapped at a rate of 7,500 per day because they contain intellectually property and therefore can’t be reused. Efforts to reclaim them have been expensive and resulted in toxic by-products.

IBM’s new method is non-toxic and results in a 95% reclamation rate. These newly cleaned, polished wafers are used as monitor wafers, which conform to less rigorous specs and can be used for non-critical applications.  They cost $30 less than newly-manufactured monitor wafers. When they reach the end of that life span, they’re sold to the solar industry for $10 each.

 IBM estimates industry-wide energy and manufacturing savings of up to $120m per year.

Money savings, energy savings, landfill space savings – the only person this could disappoint would have to be The Simpsons’ C. Montgomery Burns.