# LANDFILLS



## Auggie (Jul 26, 2012)

I am sure the topic has been discussed before, but this article reconfirms where a lot of gold is going where no one is presently looking: landfills.

http://resource-recycling.com/node/2939

Less than 15 percent of the gold and silver contained in post-consumer electronics is recovered for recycling and is instead being discarded. That was the message experts had for participants from 12 countries at the e-Waste Academy for policymakers and small businesses.

Held in Accra, Ghana by the United Nations University and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, the academy is meant to share existing knowledge and research into the effective management of discarded electronics.

According to some presenting at the 2012 academy, 320 tons of gold and more than 7,500 tons of silver, collectively worth more than $21 billion, are annually used to make PCs, cell phones, tablets computers and other new electronic devices. Additionally, electronic waste now contains precious metal "deposits" 40 to 50 times richer than ores mined from the ground, according to the experts.

According to other research from presenters, developing countries with an active informal recycling sector collect as much as 80 to 90 percent of their locally-generated e-waste. However, some 50 percent of the gold in e-scrap is lost in crude dismantling processes in developing countries (compared with 25 percent in developed countries).

"Rather than looking at e-waste as a burden, we need to see it as an opportunity," Alexis Vandendaelen of Belgium-based Umicore Precious Metals Refining told the participants.

He recommended replacing notions of "waste management" with "resource management" in order to enlarge the focus from mass and volume of used materials to include the quality of certain waste fractions.

Chris Slijkhuis of MBA Polymers, a global firm specializing in the recycling of plastics, also noted that the plastics recovered from e-scrap could significantly reduce energy and oil consumption.


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## Rodthrower18 (Jul 29, 2012)

This just reaffirms the purpose of this forum. I love this place and the atmosphere that is fostered here. As stated elsewhere on the forum, those numbers are better than any mine. The best part is a lot of people look at this stuff as "junk" so it can be had for free in many many cases. Inspiration...


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## Geo (Jul 29, 2012)

where i live, after market electronics is considered toxic waste. you wont really find any of the obscure laws being enforced on the home refiner but any government affiliated business, like the county landfill, is a real stickler about it. you cant remove any item from the landfill. that is strictly enforced. one day i was unloading a bunch of debris from my property when i took ownership at our local dump when a container truck pulls up beside me and dumps a whole container load of copper cable. i tried to get some before the dozer guy could get there but he caught me and said "its against the law to remove items from the dump" and promptly covered it up with dirt.


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## Rodthrower18 (Jul 30, 2012)

Wow, that's a shame. Waste on purpose is just absurd to me. I'll try not to get political here but we all know its not so hard for that stuff to be put back in the production stream if it weren't for the powers that be.


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## texan (Jul 31, 2012)

> its against the law to remove items from the dump" and promptly covered it up with dirt.



....And after hours he uncovered the cable and took it home.....

Texan


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## schomisch (Jul 31, 2012)

Haha I wouldn't put it past him 

~Chris!~


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## joem (Jul 31, 2012)

That's why I can never be a garbage truck driver, I would be in tears at then end of the day knowing what gets thrown in the trash that could easily be resold.


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## ritehere (Aug 3, 2012)

It is the same thing here. It is strictly prohibited for removing anything from a landfill. The last time I was at the local one here I was astounded at all of the electrical components that were just laying there in a heep. Truly unbelievable that this stuff wouldn't be put back out there for recycling.


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## NobleMetalWorks (Aug 3, 2012)

I feel really bad about it today, but when I was really heavily involved in international trade, I was sending containers full of electronic scrap to China. I would find CRT's and have them shipped 10-20 20Ft containers at a time to China where they would scrap everything but the tube, and re-use the tube for TV's that later were sold to countries like Viet Nam. I have brokered 100s of containers of electronic scrap.

The number the US EPA has most recently given for recovered e-waste in the US is 17%. But the rest of the e-waste didn't make it into public land fills like people would lead you to believe, they were shipped to China and India, and also places in West Africa, to be broken down. e-waste has been too profitable to send to a landfill for decades, ever since China opened it's country to Western Society in 1985.

On a different note, I was talking with a good friend of mine and joking about finding, and buying, dump sites that closed down in the 70s because they way I figure it, they have got to be full of PMs, and ferrous metals in concentrations far greater than any mine. I believe this to be the case although I have nothing to actually base it on.

Scott


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## jimdoc (Aug 3, 2012)

SBrown said:


> On a different note, I was talking with a good friend of mine and joking about finding, and buying, dump sites that closed down in the 70s because they way I figure it, they have got to be full of PMs, and ferrous metals in concentrations far greater than any mine. I believe this to be the case although I have nothing to actually base it on.
> Scott



You would have to hope that you don't come across any "toxic surprises". You know there has to be stuff buried there that shouldn't be.

Jim


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## patnor1011 (Aug 3, 2012)

ritehere said:


> It is the same thing here. It is strictly prohibited for removing anything from a landfill. The last time I was at the local one here I was astounded at all of the electrical components that were just laying there in a heep. Truly unbelievable that this stuff wouldn't be put back out there for recycling.



Do not underestimate them. They know very well what is inside and I bet that somebody is coming to collect all that electronic scrap be it some friend with cash in the evening or some company.


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## mdghamon (Aug 3, 2012)

There was an article/advertisement recently about "tropospheric mining" by a wall street broker. Said the gold yield was 800 times the concentration of the most efficient ground mining sources. Sure sounds like what the forum members do. This guy wanted investors so he could open up a business to do this...don't believe he had any takers....we were to busy doing :lol:


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## NobleMetalWorks (Aug 3, 2012)

Just like with all things that contain precious metals, eventually it will become cost effective, if it isn't already, to dig up old dump sites, and process the material for metals.

That is unless graphene becomes relevant before that time.

Scott


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## Cryslarz (Aug 4, 2012)

My husband is a boiler maker and sometimes does shutdowns at trash to steam plants. He told me of a piece of equipment that was put in some of the plants that is called an eddy current separator . The company installs it for free at the plants ( 1 million plus) and then purchases the non ferrous monthly or quarterly. He said you'd be surprised as to what's left after the combustion process from the boilers. He said the main thing was money that they recovered and secondary was precious metals.


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