This “urban mining” map reveals the valuables hiding in our e-waste mountains

Via Alphr:

If you were determined to find a positive in the news that we generated the weight of 4,500 Eiffel Towers in electronic waste in 2016, you might cling to one solitary fact. The report estimated that buried in this e-waste mountain is an estimated $55 billion worth of precious metals.

Yes, the EU, Switzerland and Norway combined may generate over ten million tonnes of e-waste per year, but hidden in that disgusting indictment of our throw-away culture is an opportunity. There’s gold (and copper and aluminium and more) in them thar hills.

That’s good to know, but where and in what quantities? The question that would once have elicited a shrug now has a more definite answer as ProSUM (Prospecting Secondary Raw Materials in the Urban Mine and Mining Wastes) unveils the Urban Mine Platform. It’s a database of valuable materials ripe for scrap mining encompassing e-waste, scrap vehicles and spent batteries.

As the project is backdated, you can see the changing makeup of our e-waste mountain over time. You can see elements increasing (plastic and aluminium), stablising (gold and copper), declining (printed circuit boards) and those which are now extinct (cathode ray tubes, for example.) Most fascinatingly of all, Minerals4EU, a co-project of ProSUM, has mapped the mining waste data, to illustrate exactly where mining waste mountains are. These deposits are described as “commonly very large, but of low metal grade.”

Read more!


Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 38,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — New Products 11/15/2024 Featuring Adafruit bq25185 USB / DC / Solar Charger with 3.3V Buck Board! (Video)

Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: A New Arduino MicroPython Package Manager, How-Tos and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

Adafruit IoT Monthly — The 2024 Recap Issue!

Maker Business – Adafruit Daily — Apple to build another chip at TSMC Arizona

Electronics – Adafruit Daily — SMT Tip – Stop moving around!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !


No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.