To learn more about the end of life of commodities, I went on a field trip with my class to a recycling center. This was beneficial to my project because it encouraged me to think about the end of the life cycle of gold. Gold is not only used in jewelry, but also electronics. The recycling center we visited recycled electronic waste, or, e-waste for short. E-waste may be defined as electronics that are at the end of their life cycle. This recycling center sends their e-waste to Charlotte, North Carolina, and 30% of their e-waste goes to the landfill. It was interesting to learn that inmates from the local prison come and help this recycling center with their e-waste recycling. Also, the center makes money selling all the recyclables except e-waste. They are required by law to collect e-waste. They collect about 14 tons of e-waste a week.
The recycling of e-waste is relevant to my project because as mentioned above, gold is used in electronics. Gold is the main primary metal in electronics and is found in laptops, computers, cell phone boards, etc. E-waste contains 40-50 times the amount of gold in ore mined from the ground (Wiens 2012). Because of this, the recovery of gold from e-waste is a process that is practiced in the world today. Businesses use state of the art technologies to recovery gold and other precious metals, and this helps to create a closed loop cycle. The only caveat is that in order for the recovery of gold from e-waste to be profitable, there must be high quantities of gold, and thus, high quantities of e-waste. Despite this, electronic consumption is thriving. E-waste shows a higher growth rate than any other category of municipal waste. E-waste is growing at an alarming rate due to increased consumption of electronic devices and the shorter life span of mobile phones, computers, televisions and other electronic devices (Tay et al. 2013). Additionally, due to the rising population of the middle class in non-developed countries, electronic purchase consumption has increased leading an increased amount of e-waste.
Simply put, the current trend is that the more affluent the world’s population becomes, the more electronics are being purchased. This has done wonders for the gold industry! 12% of the annual mine production of gold comes from recycled gold (Hagelüken & Corti 2010). Furthermore, there has been increased research on more efficient and environmentally friendly methods to extract gold from electronics. With 7% of the world’s gold locked away in electronic devices, reclaiming precious metals from electronic waste with more environmentally friendly methods could directly reduce the impact on the environment and save money at the same time (Clark 2016). It would also help reduce the need for expensive and environmentally destructive mining and refining operations.