Japanese people 'dig gold' in electronic trash

For many people it is just garbage but Japanese people consider it a gold mine. It is here that cell phones, televisions, computers, digital music players . are generally old-fashioned electronic devices that we have been or are trying to throw away.

If you also intend to throw away your unusable mobile phone in the trash, think again. Perhaps you should first 'dig' gold, silver, copper and many other metals in the 'cricket' intestine because of the many high prices. This type of recycling is called ' urban mining', which is easily understood as disintegrating old electronic devices to retrieve rare metals like iridium, gold . This is the industry. karma is 'taking money' in Japan, especially in the context of prices of many kinds of metals constantly breaking records. Typically, gold is trading at over $ 890 an ounce (28.35 grams) after climbing to $ 1,030 in March. Copper, aluminum and silver are also at record highs.

According to calculations by Yokohama Metal Company in Japan, a ton of gold ore averages only about 5 grams of gold while a ton of cell phone discarded can get at least 150 grams of gold. That's not to mention in this mountain of garbage also contains about 100 kg of copper and 3 kg of silver and many other metals. These materials will be reused in new electronic components while gold and precious metals are cooked and resold to jewelry makers, investors or mobile phone manufacturers, which are preferred. Gold in electronic circuits because it conducts electricity better than copper.

Recycling electronic waste has solved the problem of scarcity of metals for the manufacturing industry and contributing to environmental protection.

Industry 'Urban mining' is particularly important for Japan - the world's leading electronics producer, which is not endowed with natural resources but has tens of millions of lots and numerous electronic goods. The old is discarded every year. Leading the field is Eco-Sytem located near Tokyo. Each month the company ships an average of 200-300 kg of pure 99.99% gold bullion, earning 5.9-8.8 million USD. This is equivalent to the output of a small gold mine. In addition to mobile phones and electronic devices, Eco-System also exploits metal from memory chips, cables and ink cartridges containing silver and palladium components, a precious metal like platinum that is often found in gold ore, copper and nickel.

Currently, although people are increasingly concerned about the environment and the recycling of waste, the urban mining industry still does not collect enough old mobile phones to supply recycling plants. According to an official of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, 128 million people in this country average new " cell phones" after about 32 months of use. Every year, many phones are discarded, but only 10-12% are recycled by users who tend to store them as a souvenir, partly because of concerns about losing personal data in the phone. According to statistics, in 2006, only 558 tons of old mobile phones in Japan were collected for recycling, down by 1/3 compared to 3 years ago. Due to insufficient materials, many Japanese recycling companies are importing Singapore and Indonesia second-hand boards, which also contain rare metals like indium - an important component in the production of screen televisions. Flat and computer screens, antimony and bismuth, materials are indispensable in many high-tech products.