Waste industry cashes in on precious metals in electronics waste

There’s a gold rush happening in the waste and recycling industry. Waste businesses are cashing in on the precious metals contained within electronic goods waste. Laptops could contain up to £25 (AU$46) worth of gold, while high-end desktop machines could contain even more, according to BusinessWaste.co.uk.

Dropping oil prices and high commodity prices have created a situation in which reclaiming gold and silver inside discarded electrical goods makes sound financial sense, the company said. Recovering previously refined precious metals — a process being dubbed ‘urban mining’ — is cheaper than prospecting, mining and processing ‘new’ gold from the ground.

And with 320 tons of gold and 7500 tons of silver used in the global production of personal computers each year, there’s plenty of precious metals out there for the reclaiming.

“Recycling companies are now seeing the contents of the WEEE bin as a quick win,” said BusinessWaste.co.uk spokesperson Mark Hall. “And they’ll take these goods away from their previous owners for free because — with the right tools and expertise — they represent a superb return on investment.

“The high-end electronics industry relies on gold, silver and other precious and rare-earth metals to supply ever faster and ever more reliable devices. And it’s far cheaper to recycle these metals than it is to mine it from ore.

“And with prices at high levels, it has suddenly become all the more urgent to find precious metals the cheapest way possible — and that’s from obsolete equipment.”

Waste and recycling companies are increasingly vying for the opportunity to handle electronic waste from large companies. While companies tend to hold onto old equipment for data integrity reasons, they will soon look to dispose of it safely and ensure that confidentiality is maintained, BusinessWaste.co.uk said.

“It’s a smart balancing act,” said Hall. “Verifiable destruction combined with the smart recovery of precious metals can now be achieved by companies with the right expertise and right equipment, and it’s these urban miners who are going to profit from British industry’s continuing need for up-to-date equipment and readily available raw materials.”

Landfill rubbish tips are also full of precious metals — but mining these presents some risks and safety issues.

With the average office computer having a service life of around five years, hundreds of thousands of processor containing precious metals enter the waste and recycling system each year, presenting a potentially lucrative opportunity for companies with the tools to unlock these resources.