Why Junk Electronics Should Be Big Business

An anonymous reader writes "We've heard before about the problem of e-waste — computers and other high-tech gadgets that are tossed into landfills or shipped off to third-world countries when they reach end-of-life. But this article makes the case that there's a huge business opportunity here, with billions of dollars going to waste in the form of metals that could be reclaimed from these old and broken devices. 'At current rates of production, $16 billion (or 320 tons) in gold and $5 billion (7500 tons) in silver are put into media tablets, smartphones, computers, and other devices annually. With growth in demand for smartphones and media tablets showing little sign of diminishing in the next few years, the flow of gold and silver from deposit to waste facilities is only likely to accelerate. ... StEP claims that, in developing nations, 50 percent of the gold in e-waste is lost due to "crude dismantling processes" and only 25 percent of the remainder is recoverable due to the rudimentary technology to hand. In contrast, 25 percent of gold is lost to electronics dismantling in developed nations, and modern facilities are able to recover 95 percent of the rest.'"

Re:Yeah the money may be good

[Anonymous Coward]

Australia must be the dumbest country of all.
Bans the export of batteries etc, but charges $120-250 ton for landfill.
Everything should roll into a smelter, and you get these primary leftovers.
1) Metals incl rare earths
2) Flock (Plastic rubber, and nonmetal crap)
3) Lots of Glass if doing TV picture tubes or cars
4) Lots of lead (considered nasty) and evil.
5) Smoke and fumes
6) Large electricity bill + Carbon Taxes + 10% Fed Gov Tax
7) No cheap way of getting rid of flock, and no 'credits' or tax deductions for recycling.

Broadly recycling is D.E.A.D because some committee decided to raise a new tax on new electronic goodies, and figure the greenies got a good feeling, because burial brings in new taxes (new landfill taxes).

Re:Ron Paul is the new Sarah Palin

[Anonymous Coward]

I broke all protocol and read the article just to see if Ron Paul was mentioned. He wasn't. Are you suggesting he should be recycled for his gold content?

Better than gold ore

[Anonymous Coward]

The swedish Boliden built an new facitlity in order to extract gold and other metals from e-waste. E-waste yields 100g/1000kg of material compared to 8g/1000kg of ore.

http://www.boliden.com/Press/News/2012/New-facility-makes-Boliden-world-leader/

Re:Many are going to Nigeria

[acidfast7]

As fellow European, I think you need to really think about your statement: "we recycle most of our waste." What really constitutes recycling of an electronic product? My guess is that it goes to a European "recycling firm" and gets exported to a Chinese/Indian "recycling firm", which then sends it to a Chinese/Indian village for possible gold/silver extraction and minimal labor cost. The remainder of the product just lies in a pile in the village ... or is buried in the village. I'm sure that it makes you/us feel all shiny inside to say you/we "recycle" something but the only difference is where the wasted end product ends up.

Also, I lived in Stockholm until 2010 and was still using Bang & Olufsen BeoVision CRT every day because the picture was hard to beat :D

Re:Yeah the money may be good

[mirix]

I wouldn't think there is much Be in e-waste. I know it was used in BeO insulators, but they are quite rare. I'd think these days it is mostly relegated to aerospace - things like that where you just can't compromise.

AlN is supposed to be pretty close in performance, so even that may be moving out.

For arsenic, it's only used in semiconductors AFAIK, like GaAs and GaAsP LEDs, some fast transistors, etc. But in all of these cases, it's a crystal (and generally epoxy encapsulated), so I'm not sure how much arsenic would leach from it. I Suppose powder from mechanical damage and possible thermal (from reclamation process? or incineration) decomposition products would be considerably more problematic, though.

Keep in mind these would be in pretty minute quantity compared to the (historical at least) asston of lead on every board. Even the copper is fairly bad for aquatic life, IIRC. (seem to recall that humans can process it, but it bioaccumulates in marine life, like various heavy metals do to us).

I actually do this

[Hunter Shoptaw]

I work for a company that takes care of e-waste. The problem we face is that many times we are outbid by companies that then ship the waste off shore or simply stripped and tossed. The company I work for actually has teams in our warehouse that comb through every piece and find pieces that are available for resale. Those pieces that aren't are them dismantled, categorized and shipped to certified recyclers so that each and every piece that can possibly be recycled is. We even recycle most of our shipping materials. There are costs associated with recycling your systems, sure, but it's better than paying the EPA fines if your caught even once. Also, some recyclers, including the one I work for, will actually pay you for your electronics in some cases, depending on type and condition. Many times there are lots of things that we could be doing differently as a society to increase our ecologic awareness and minimize our e-waste impact. We simply don't because it's not the most convenient option. As I'm not trying to plug my company, I'll leave out the name. If your interested ask for it in the comments.

I don't think that that's true

[slashmydots]

All humans total mine approximately 1714 tons of gold per year in the entire world so I have a hard time believing that 500-micron thick electroplated electronic contact pins result in 320 tons like the article states. Consider how many solid gold rings are made in jewelry stores in every country in the world and how almost every married person has one, it's probably closer to a 10000:1 ratio instead of 5:1 like the article implies.

Re:Yeah the money may be good

[djl4570]

Smelting as you describe would release large quantities of metal oxides with the smoke and fumes and contaminate a large quantity of glass with lead oxide and other metallic oxides that are soluble in molten glass. That's why glass is used for flux when smelting gold. The oxides that gas off can be hazardous, and the glass slag contains lead so use as little as possible.
Before smelting, the material needs to be shredded, crushed and ground into fine particles and as much of the non metallic material as possible should be separated. Make the smelt as small as practical. Less material to heat, means lower energy consumption and fewer byproducts.
Once you smelt out the base metals you are left with precious metals: gold, silver, copper and platinum group metals (PGM). At this point the silver and copper can be separated from the gold and PGM using the Miller process. Further refining of the gold once used the Wohlwill process which is expensive because of the quantities of auric acid required. Commercial gold refiners today don't talk about their processes.

Re:I actually do this

[retroworks]

I actually do this, too. And I export a good percentage which would be specifically banned for export under the legislation which the article says is "stalled". This legislation was profiled in Slashdot earlier this year. http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/02/12/1431208/its-not-all-waste-the-complicated-life-of-surplus-electronics-in-africa [slashdot.org] The UNEP studies found that 80% of the goods exported to Africa were reused. The bans against imports came from dictatorships in places like Egypt. The best solution to the problem is Fair Trade Recycling, which is a threat to Redemtech and other financial sponsors of the bill in question, who want to ban other countries from competing for proper reuse and recycling of used goods. Most of the goods shown at the dumps in Africa and Asia (by anti-export groups) were used productively for years in those countries before they were discarded, most USA and EU electronics are domestically recycled, and most of the remainder which are exported (85%) work. This is an anti-reuse (planned obsolescence) campaign rigged to look like an environmental protest.