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THAR’S GOLD IN THEM THAR PHONES
WIFE DOTTIE came upon a fascinating bit of recycling knowledge at the Urban Mining website (urbanmining.org): There’s more gold in a ton of recycled cellphone circuitry than there is in a ton of actual ore.
Cellphone manufacturers use gold instead of copper in circuit boards because the gold is more conductive. There’s as much as 150 g of gold obtainable from each ton of recycled cellphone circuitry. By contrast, it’s figured that 5 g/ton is a reasonable yield from marginal ore.
Recycling these Razrs is a good idea, whether for cash or just for environmental reasons.
Giving that no more than 20 percent of us recycle our old phones, there’s a lot of mineral wealth around—and a lot of websites pursuing it. I offer no first-hand recommendations in this regard. However, we do have these two Razrs just sitting in the desk drawer…. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2012
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