TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Method: The waste solution was extracted from photovoltaic fragments at ambient temperature. The waste solution was formed after contact with a leaching agent, which has a pH of less than 6. Preferred Components: The additional metal includes copper. The waste solution includes cadmium and tellurium. The leaching agent includes sulfuric acid or hydrogen peroxide, where the sulfuric acid has a concentration of at least 0.5 M. The leaching agent has a liquid to solid ratio that is less than 480 ml/kg.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Method: The method or the system further comprises removing at least one additional metal from the resin. The cation exchange resin is first swelled with water. Preferred Components: The tellurium-containing solution includes substantially all the extracted tellurium from the resin. The cation exchange resin is an iminodiacetic acid chelating resin or an acid cation resin containing at least 8% divinylbenzene. EXAMPLE - Samples measuring 6.3 cm by 30.5 cm, cut from commercial cadmium (Cd) telluride (Te) photovoltaic modules and also fragmented manufacturing scrap were used. The average composition of the metals in the photovoltaic module samples, were approximately Cd 0.05 wt.%, Te 0.06% wt.% and copper 0.01 wt.%. Leaching was carried out at ambient temperature in a tumbling machine. The efficiency of two oxidative-leaching procedures in extracting cadmium and tellurium from photovoltaic glass, hydrogen peroxide leaching in sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide leaching in hydrochloric acid was assessed. The strength of the acids ranged from 1-4 M. Kinetic studies of leaching were conducted in constant solid-to-liquid ratios at ambient temperature. The glass-solution mixture was sampled at regular intervals and the samples were then filtered through syringe filters with pore sizes of 0.20-0.70 mu m. The filtrate was diluted with 5% nitric acid and the solutions were analyzed for Te, Cd and copper.