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See the original image at ecogeek.org —

Japan's Landfills Abound with Gold, Silver and Platinum

ecogeek.org — n Japan's landfills, there is enough gold, silver and platinum to propel the country into the top tier of resource-producing countries - along with Australia, Brazil and Canada.

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  • AgmLauncher, on 09/16/2008, -3/+55Would be interesting to see how much is in US landfills then...
    • dillibob, on 09/17/2008, -3/+9prolly even more. all the electronics we throw out, and U.S.' population is vastly bigger than japan's
      • Awspire, on 09/17/2008, -1/+14Exactly. I've always felt our landfills will be future sites to mine for resources. The company that developes a ways to sort and extract , then properly recycle all these elements will make a friggin fortune.
      • frnzkfk, on 09/17/2008, -0/+8actaully, us exports its e-waste to india, china and africa. so much less
      • Joab, on 09/17/2008, -0/+3US's e-waste is sold to other countries that have lower standards in the toxic waste that reprocessing electronics produces.
      • SuomynonaEno, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1Yup and interestingly "shipping those off" rather than really practice or innovate on proper waste management techniques OR on pre-preprocessing BEFORE shipping those out are deemed to be as a "higher standard". **scratches chin** Something's wrong with the diagram eh?
    • Duncan3, on 09/17/2008, -1/+5None, we ship it all to China to be stomped on by children and thrown in landfills there. No really, that is what we do.
    • DestroyFascism, on 09/17/2008, -0/+5Didn't the US dump it all to sea....as if it would "go away"
  • JMellissa, on 09/16/2008, -0/+37The real trick is extracting those precious metals from the discarded electronics. Not THERE's a "kill app".
    • ahjkl67435, on 09/17/2008, -1/+6"Not THERE's a 'kill app',"
      you mean Now?
    • iFrikkenR, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2Er, recylcing of this nature is already very common.

      A tonne of electronic waste contains several times more gold than the richest ore on earth. True story. Recycling catalytic convertors is also a massively profitable scheme - they contain Paladium which is incredibly rare in natrue and extremely expensive.

      People are slowly waking up to the idea that the best source of material to make new stuff, is the old stuff you're replacing
    • Joab, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2@iFrikkenR there's a big problem though with the toxic waste that reprocessing electronics produces. There is a lot of valuable metals to be gained however there's also the problem with what to do with the remaining waste. (i.e. plastic, lead glass ) In the 90's there were a couple US companies that made a millions there first couple months until it was discovered they were using the waste as fuel for their furnaces.
      • DeathfireD, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1Some kid in high school came up with a way to decompose plastic bags using bacteria in a mere few months. I wonder if the kid could come up with a faster method for decomposing harder plastics that cant be reused.
  • MacBookForMe, on 09/16/2008, -1/+19Would really love to own one big landfill...:) ups, sorry...recycling processing unit...
    • frnzkfk, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1actually, you wouldnt... it cost a *****-ton to properly recycle the ewaste which is why we (you included) allow impoverished asians, indians, and africans to filter through the waste. along with the gold are some very unpleasant chemicals which we expose them to (and let it filter into their water supply). GOOOOOO AMERICA!!!!!
  • ubernoggin, on 09/16/2008, -1/+33One man's trash is another man's treasure. Literally!
  • balibones, on 09/16/2008, -1/+61By the time you sorted through it all you'd die of mercury poisoning or cancer.
    • AmyVernon, on 09/16/2008, -1/+28well, that's just nitpicking, really.
    • thedude8, on 09/16/2008, -0/+6yeah, but what a legacy to leave behind...
    • purelithium, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2Why not have a real party and just get both!
    • SeventhSon, on 09/17/2008, -1/+9I'm tired of everybody ragging on handling mercury.
      I played with that stuff all the time as a kid and nothing''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''s wrong with me.
      • Mpwns, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1same here im doing ju
      • RobotLeAwesome, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I even ingested it at one point and I'm stilUNNNNNNNNNNNNNG.
    • thrillki1l, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1the mercury mainly is in CRT monitors. there's barley any mercury in circuit boards.
  • SVOboy, on 09/16/2008, -1/+20Hopefully they can work on a decent recycling program to prevent so much valuable junk from entering the landfill in the first place.
    • diggimator, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1They do have a recycling program. Are you saying that the current ones that you know of in Japan aren't good enough?
      • SVOboy, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2When I lived in Japan, which was last year, they had a great recycling program for PET bottles and cans and such, but not so much for the massive amounts of electronics sitting around in most people's homes. I don't know what there did with it because I never had to throw away my stuff, but there didn't see to be a clear return station at stores or anything like that. Of course, I may not have been aware of it if it was the type of thing like you get in america where whoever will take back and recycle your dvd player, but I think in whatever country something more conspicuous needs to be done for electronics recycling.
  • allaboutdatiki, on 09/16/2008, -0/+10Source article:
    http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/ind ...
  • SteelChicken, on 09/16/2008, -11/+5I blame republicans for destroying the environment.
    • roxgod666, on 09/17/2008, -0/+5I blame humans (not everybody lives in the United States you know)
    • MonexFRAUD, on 09/30/2008, -0/+0You should probably think about investing in gold and silver in these troubled times. Gold and silver can be a good hedge against economic volatility as long as you're not doing a leveraged trade. http://www.monexfraud.com/investment-strategies/bu ... You may wish to invest in the gold ETF (GLD) or the silver ETF (SLV) in a non-margin account. This is the least expensive way to invest. If you feel a need to to take delivery of your metals be extra cautious about who you buy from. Check the Better Business Bureau for complaints, ratings, and adviseries. Also check RipoffReport.com for complaints and read how or if they were handled. At http://www.monexfraud.com all the information you need about Monex Deposit Company is conveniently gathered in one place. Monex is the worst company you can buy precious metals from so do yourself a favor and don't do it. Go to http://www.monexfraud.com and you'll see what I mean!
      ---------------------------------------------
      http://www.monexfraud.com
  • GhandicapXRS, on 09/16/2008, -6/+23Maybe the Israelis will settle there next... I keed! I keed!
  • hamobu, on 09/16/2008, -4/+6They are Japanese, they will build a robot to sift trough all the garbage looking for discarded electronics.

    It is great when free market helps clean the environment.
  • ieataquacrayons, on 09/17/2008, -1/+58Sounds like a job for Wall-E.
  • Meestafa, on 10/22/2008, -0/+4I'm sure they'll figure something out
  • WhatsUpWithJack, on 09/17/2008, -1/+7Digg, baby, Digg!!!

    (Sorry, I don't know how to spell 'digg' any other way.)
  • fenderjazz, on 09/17/2008, -0/+5Well, if you're just throwing it out... can we have it?
  • christopherRB, on 09/17/2008, -0/+6Last time I checked, around 90% of gold ever mined is still in use today.
    • Gemfinder, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1And we've found only 5% of the gold that exists in the world.
      Whot da hell am I doing knocking around in the hills and getting my feet wet up to my bloody knees?!
  • brandita, on 09/17/2008, -0/+9Just what we need ... more gold diggers.
  • Willotree, on 09/17/2008, -0/+6Good *****.
  • bongfarmer, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2Sound like a trap to increase soylent green production
  • timpkmn89, on 09/17/2008, -2/+39Gold and Silver I understand, but Pokemon Platinum just came out...
    • eLuugy, on 09/17/2008, -2/+4OOOOHHHH GOTTA CATCH THEM ALL GOTTA CATCH THEM ALL!!
  • bluezinc, on 09/17/2008, -1/+3Isn't that what we told them to get them over here in the first place? Then they had to build our railroads and dig our mines!

    I suspect this is just Japan getting revenge.
  • physicalzero, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2Dumpster diving is more fun.
  • darkmagician777, on 09/17/2008, -2/+2Since Japan has a high turnaround of electronics of course they have all that untapped materials. With a culture that has a prime focus of real education, I would bet money japan or china would solve the how to extract the metals better and more efficient then the American Intelligence.
  • brodieface, on 09/17/2008, -0/+6One man's trash...
  • pstroll, on 09/17/2008, -3/+1Unfortunately the concentrations are so low that you would never recoup the energy costs needed to extract the precious metals. Pretty flimsy article.
  • thrillki1l, on 09/17/2008, -0/+3it makes perfect sense. i live in portland oregon and we have a place called freegeek that recycles computers and uses usable parts to make cheap computers for the poor. they send the broken parts to a refinery that gets all the precious metal out of the components. pound for pound computer parts have more gold in them then gold ore. and it is cheaper to refine let alone the other metals in it.
  • jerrycurley, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2Dumpster Diving!
  • Neorio, on 09/17/2008, -1/+1I don't think anyone has seen Japan recycling plants. Maybe they have old landfill, but these days they use huge furnaces that burn most burnable rubbish - the energy from the burning gets pumped back into the grid - and the exhaust fumes are treated so there is little to no pollution coming out.

    They also seperate electronics, batteries, and non-burnables, and they have a truck that goes around every week to collect computers, moitors, printers, fridges, speakers, etc. Not sure how that is recycled though.
    • vurdillac, on 09/17/2008, -0/+0I disagree. The pollution there is terrible. I couldn't hang my laundry outside without it smelling worse than before I washed it and my eyes are very sensitive to pollution so I looked bleary-eyed (like I had just smoked a LOT of dope) the entire time I was there.
  • themonkman, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2I remember seeing a show on the Discovery Channel where this company processes and extracts the gold from disposed electronics. They then make it into 24K gold bullion.
  • Barackalypse, on 09/17/2008, -4/+1Wait a minute, a while back weren't you eco folks complaining about the pollution in China caused by recycling this e-waste, and now you're pumping the stuff as full of valuable metals ripe for recovery? Which is it? It must be tough being liberal, all your positions end up contradictions.
    http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3921
  • tikited, on 09/17/2008, -1/+1The Spaniards owe gold since they stole it from the Mayan and Aztec Indians long ago.
  • Gordianus, on 09/17/2008, -0/+0We are getting very close to the point where it will be economically feasible to mine the landfill sites for all those precious metals in many developed countries, not just Japan. Precious metal prices continue to increase as they become harder to find. As the original Times article points out, the concentration of precious metals is in many cases higher in landfill than in natural ore. There is a real business opportunity here.
  • Gordianus, on 09/17/2008, -0/+0Here is another interesting article on this subject:

    http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19426051.2 ...
  • paker, on 09/17/2008, -0/+2The problem is extracting the gold, silver, platinum out of the electronics in a way that's cost effective.
    • JimPuchai, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1It is not really a huge problem if you tackle it on a large scale. Mince everything - and I do mean everything - from the dump and heat it in a huge ceramic lined retort. As the temperature is increased everything will give up its volatile elements either as a gas or a liquid.

      At the end even the metals will run off as liquids for collection and separation.

      If the collection of all the different gases and liquids is done properly NOTHING is lost and all useful products can be preserved for re-manufacturing and re-use.

      Note that the fuel for this operation is in fact generated by the flammable gases saved from the previous run.
  • theutopian, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1Waste recycling and waste management is only going to be a huge growth industry. Most of what is thrown away can be recycled in some way and this is an excellent example. The free market is figuring this out. This is the solution to our waste problems; profitable recycling and waste management.
  • mstachiw, on 09/17/2008, -0/+1where are we going to put these sacks and sacks of money we just got from Wii sales? guess we'll have to finally throw out these sacks and sacks of gold and silver.
  • frosted, on 09/17/2008, -0/+0THERE BE GOLD IN THEM THAR DUMP!
    (goes off to mine landfills)
  • carnivore0311, on 09/17/2008, -0/+0Extracting metals from old film, computers and cell phones is already a common practice in the US. I can't believe this is on ecogeek. I was a security guard at Heraeus metal processing and I can tell you first hand that this is horrible for the environment. They toss all these parts into a furnace with all sorts of acids and other chemicals. The site where these factories are are just like lifeless scars. No grass grows there, no animals live there. Plus there is a smokestack that plumes some sort of noxious cloud 24 hours a day.
  • ais1, on 09/19/2008, -1/+0I think they should recheck these numbers
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