Electronic waste contains valuable resources like gold and palladium
In your attic or drawers, you probably have old laptops, cameras, and gaming consoles that don’t work anymore. The phone you are using today might soon join that pile once it breaks or becomes outdated.
In 2022, the average person in the US threw away 21 kilograms (kg) of electronics. In Norway, people threw away even more—27 kg per person. This is about the same weight as a pit bull dog. All around the world, people discarded 62 million metric tons (t) of electronics in total. According to the UN’s Global E-Waste Monitor 2024 report, that’s as heavy as 1.7 million fully loaded trucks. If you lined them up, they would almost circle the Earth.
E-waste, or electronic waste, is not just garbage; it contains valuable metals. In 2022, half of the e-waste was made of metals, worth $91 billion. Important metals like copper, iron, and gold were a big part of this value. E-waste also has aluminum, platinum, and rare earth elements like neodymium, which are essential for making batteries and wind turbines, key to green energy.
Mining these metals harms the environment and can cause human rights issues. It also creates pollution and wastes resources. However, by recycling these materials, known as urban mining, we could solve many problems. Reclaiming metals from e-waste would reduce the need for new mining, cut down on 52 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and help meet the demand for these metals.
But, the world is recycling less than 25% of e-waste properly. Most e-waste is burned or recycled in informal and unsafe ways, losing valuable materials and releasing toxic substances like mercury. Around 40% of the 31 million tons of metals in e-waste were not recovered in 2022. Poor waste management and weak laws are some of the reasons behind this problem, along with the actions of tech companies and consumers.
New technologies could help. Companies like Demcore Technology are working on ways to recover more metals from e-waste at lower costs. They focus on recycling printed circuit boards (PCBs), which are found inside most gadgets. One ton of PCBs contains 200 kg of copper, 0.4 kg of silver, and 0.09 kg of gold. The amount of gold and other precious metals in these boards is up to 10 times higher than in natural ores.
Electronic waste contains several metals that are valuable or that the US Department of Energy deems essential to economic and national security. Here is the breakdown by weight and value of some of the metals contained in the 62 million t of e-waste generated globally in 2022.
Source: Cornelis P. Baldé et al., Global E-waste Monitor 2024 (Geneva/Bonn: International Telecommunication Union and United Nations Institute for Training and Research, 2024).
At Mint’s plant in Sydney, Australia, they use bacteria to help recover metals from e-waste. The plant recycles 3,000 tons of e-waste every year, recovering 0.5 tons of gold and 800 tons of copper. Other companies are using new chemical processes to recover metals faster and more efficiently. For example, the Royal Mint in the UK is using a new method to dissolve gold from PCBs in minutes.
However, only 20% of precious metals were recycled from e-waste in 2022. Copper had a better recycling rate at 60%, but this is still not enough. E-waste is hard to recycle because it includes many different products—phones, laptops, even e-cigarettes—and each contains a mix of metals. A single smartphone can have more than 40 different metals in tiny amounts, making it difficult and expensive to recover.
Source: Resour. Policy 2020, DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101750.
a Nickel, copper, silicon, magnesium, platinum, neodymium, aluminum, tin, and iron.
Researchers are also looking at ways to recover rare earth elements from e-waste. Rare earths are used in wind turbines, electric vehicle motors, and electronics. In 2022, 12 million kilograms of rare earths were present in e-waste, but only about 1% was recycled.
The main barrier to better recycling is cost. Recycling metals from e-waste is often expensive and requires a lot of energy. But with more investment and innovation, recycling rates could improve. Local e-waste recycling plants in cities could make it easier and cheaper to recycle electronics, instead of shipping them abroad.
Governments also need to improve laws to require better e-waste management. Companies should be pressured to design products that last longer, are easier to repair, and can be recycled more effectively.
Recycling should be the last step. Reusing and repairing electronics are better options, but when devices are beyond saving, we need efficient recycling to recover all the valuable metals inside. Tackling this growing problem will need cooperation from consumers, governments, and businesses to make recycling easier and more effective.
Soruce: https://cen.acs.org/environment/recycling/Electronic-waste-gold-mine-waiting/102/i23