Mountain of electrical waste reaches new peak

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Waste that could have been recovered and recycled was worth $52 billion, including 300 tons of gold. Isn't that a gold mine?

Less than one-sixth of all e-waste was properly recycled, it said.

I wonder and hope that recycle factories know how to properly dispose of some of the dangerous chemicals e.g. lithium batteries

The urban mineral mine of rare earth metal as well.

2 points come to mind: A few years places on waste ground started poping up that offered free collection of household waste items (mostly e-waste). They typically stay a few months then suddenly dissapear. I have always suspected all the hate is being collected and sent to China for "recycling". That would keep the official amount of waste here lower. Secondly, it reminds me of the irony of the so called eco-points (free consumer points) awarded when you buy new TVs. And worse - the bigger the TV the more eco-points you earn.

ifd66

It costs more to send them to China then the amount you can recycle material from each item. The reason why they move on is because once they collected a fair amount they consider moving on since they had cleared out the place of durable electronic goods in the neighborhood and move on to the next.

The mobile phones are actually recycled here in Japan to gain the precious metals that can be extracted from them.

I wonder and hope that recycle factories know how to properly dispose of some of the dangerous chemicals e.g. lithium batteries

Lithium batteries are hazardous waste because they actually contain the metal Lithium - which creates a caustic hydroxide when it comes in contact with water. This makes it NOT a good choice for landfills. Lithium batteries are also NOT rechargeable. You usually see them marketed either in "button" or "cylinder" form. Because they aren't rechargeable, their use is rather limited.

Rechargeable Lithium ION batteries (i.e. most laptop batteries these days) do not actually contain any Lithium metal that can react with water and as such are NOT hazardous waste. They can be disposed of in a landfill without worry.

Technology is chocking up slowly planet Earth with garbage. We need Garbage eating Godzilla to fix this problem.

Educator60

The eco point was a government initiative for privehouse holds to up grade their old electric appliances into newer energy conservative products. If you compare refrirgiators consumes 15~30% less energy then models 10 years ago. If all houses in the Kanto region were to utilize this system it had been calculated that it would amount to reducing the amount that a single nuclear reactor would generate. This type of energy saving policies had been carried out in the US in the past with similar results.