Study on the waste liquid crystal display treatment: Focus on the resource recovery

► A process combined pyrolysis and acid immersion was proposed to dispose waste LCDs. ► This process maximally recovered valuable resources while treating the waste LCDs. ► Valuable product was obtained by applying the pyrolysis of polarizing film from LCD. ► The indium recovery was optimized by using response surface methodology. ► A polynomial equation was obtained that well predicted the indium recovery process.