Environmental campaigners argue for mining of urban waste
Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - 14:47:02
Humanity is always looking to extract resources from Planet Earth, with some valuable products being harder to reach than others.
It was recently announced that some companies are looking to dig down into the rock beneath the Pacific Ocean, to find precious metals and other valuable minerals there, although these plans have proved controversial with environmental groups, which are concerned about the impact that this could have.
Now representatives of the Ocean Foundation have argued for an alternative approach which could be just as effective and far more environmentally friendly, according to SciDevNet.
Spokesperson, Natalie Lowrey, has pointed out that about $21 billion ((13.4 billion) in precious metals such as gold and silver are used within consumer electronics devices, such as smartphones.
This means that there is a huge wealth of important materials sitting in the pockets of people across the planet, much of which remains untapped, as these devices tend to have short shelf lives and can end up thrown in the bin or simply left gathering dust at home.
Lowrey and her colleagues point out that this represents a much more significant haul than is available in the proposed undersea mines and so companies should, instead, look to harvest the resources from urban waste rather than participating in the costly and damaging process of extracting yet more metal from the ground.
Deep sea mining licenses are likely to be granted to certain companies in the next three years and millions of square miles of ocean bed have been approved for exploration, so it seems likely that in spite of protests, this process will continue.
However, consumers have a chance to make a difference by recycling their old mobile phones, so that no matter how old or broken the device, the important materials it contains can be reused.
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