Group turning used dentures into gold mine for charity
TOKYO —
Old dentures can be stained and unsightly but for a project raising money for charity, they’re a potential gold mine.
The Japan Denture Recycle Association started in December 2006 and so far has recycled 30,000 dentures, generating 18 million yen for charity.
Project leader Isao Miyoshi estimates if all 3.6 million dentures with precious metals discarded each year in Japan were recycled, they’d be worth up to 7 billion yen.
“Dentures use parts made of gold, silver, palladium and other precious metals,” Miyoshi said.
He called the recycled dentures “a treasure mountain” for the money they can raise for charity.
The group donates half of the funds to UNICEF for needy children around the world, and the rest to local government offices for their welfare projects.
Miyoshi, 64, a company executive, started the denture project after a dentist told him that millions of dentures are discarded every year.
The group now has hundreds of denture drop boxes in government offices around the country. Five rare metal recycling companies have volunteered to collect them and reprocess the valuable parts.
Miyoshi said dentures are proliferating in an aging country where 27 percent of the 127 million people are over the age of 60.
A typical set of dentures is about 30% gold, silver and palladium, worth about 2,500 yen, he said.
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4 Comments
GrouchyGaijin at 06:46 PM JST - 5th May
Kinda creepy. reminds me of a trip I took to a concentration camp in Poland. Dentures, eyeglasses, hair, fillings............gives me the heebeejeebees!
timorborder at 06:46 AM JST - 6th May
I had the same idea, however, nobody else was posting. Money for dentures sounds like the harvesting of gold teeth and fillings at Auchwitz circa early 1940s.
capone at 05:16 PM JST - 6th May
reminds me of my visit to Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh...no thanks
OhioDonna at 12:11 AM JST - 7th May
As I was reading this article I was thinking the same thoughts. However, I suppose there are creepier things in this world.
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