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Treasure trove: The Bank
of England's vault under central London contains 4,600 tons of the precious
metal, worth an incredible £156billion
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A dangerous amount of toxic waste, 1,000 tons of silver and
300 tons of gold were dumped across the world in 2014 due to inadequate
recycling - says a recent United Nations University study.
Precious metals are used as components for household
appliances and electronic gadgets. Almost 42 million tons of such 'e-waste'
were simply thrown away in 2014.
The UNU study estimates the potential value of the globally wasted
resources at about $50 billion. The volume of gold alone is more than 10
percent of what is mined every year.
Most of the electronic
waste comes from the US and China. Combined, they amount for about a third of
the enormous pile. But if rated by e-waste per capita, European nations are in
the lead, with Norwegians throwing away the most - over 28 kilograms per
person. The least waste is generated by African countries, at just 1.7 kilograms
per person.
"Worldwide,
e-waste constitutes a valuable 'urban mine' - a large potential reservoir of
recyclable materials," UN Under Secretary-General David Malone said.
But apart from the
valuable metals, growing mountains of e-waste have hazardous components,
including 4,400 tons of ozone-depleting toxins and 2.2 million tons of lead
compounds. "The hazardous content
of e-waste constitutes a 'toxic mine' that must be managed with extreme
care," David Malone said.
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Reuters / Arnd Wiegmann
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The amount of electronic waste is growing by two tons each
year, says the report. The increase is driven by growing sales of gadgets and
their decreasing lifecycles.
The report says only 16
percent of globally produced e-waste is being properly processed and recycled.
The rest ends up in common landfills. A separate study by the British
pro-recycling charity Wrap says up to 23 percent of the electronics dumped are
in working condition, or only need minimal repair.
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