This paper describes a new recycling method, based upon biotechnology, in order to extract platinum group metals (PGMs) from post-consumer products. The metal ion-reducing bacterium, Shewanella algae, was found to exhibit the ability to reduce and deposit the PGMs ions [platinum (IV), palladium (II) and rhodium (III)] into metal nanoparticles at room temperature and neutral pH within 60 min, using formate as the electron donor. We have collected fundamental data demonstrating that the ability of S. algae cells can be applied to the recovery of PGMs from dilute solutions. When targeting leachates of spent automotive catalysts, S. algae cells can successfully allow rapid reduction and deposition of PGM ions, proposing a new bio-recovery system of PGMs from spent automotive catalysts (three-way catalysts for minimizing automobile emissions). Our proposed biotechnology is linked to the development of low cost, eco-friendly recycling technology that enables the rapid recovery of PGMs utilizing microbial reactions at ambient temperature and ambient pressure.