A new UN report finds that humanity is generating 137 billion pounds of TVs, smartphones, and other e-waste a year—and recycling less than a quarter of it.
While there’s precious metals in them, it’s not a whole lot. An average laptop contains 0.3 grams of gold for example. But it takes a lot of effort to extract that. There’ll be some other precious metals in it, but in similarly small quantities and just as difficult to extract. And after that, you’d be stuck with the rest of it that YOU now need to get rid of.
Basically, unless you can grossly underpay someone in a poor country with little regulations, it’s very hard to make that profitable. It’s simply not worth the effort when new materials are still cheap and easy to get.
While there’s precious metals in them, it’s not a whole lot. An average laptop contains 0.3 grams of gold for example. But it takes a lot of effort to extract that. There’ll be some other precious metals in it, but in similarly small quantities and just as difficult to extract. And after that, you’d be stuck with the rest of it that YOU now need to get rid of.
Basically, unless you can grossly underpay someone in a poor country with little regulations, it’s very hard to make that profitable. It’s simply not worth the effort when new materials are still cheap and easy to get.