In recent years, when it comes to waste disposal, the watchword has become “recycling“: Between glass, metals, paper and plastic there are many materials that can be recovered to avoid waste, but when it comes to appliances that have come to an end, or of electronic devices of various kinds, there is to be considered the fact that by throwing them away you are also throwing the small treasure contained in each of them.
Computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones and televisions, as well as washing machines or refrigerators, just to mention some of the most popular appliances, have components made with components with precious metals Like silver, gold or platinum, particularly suitable for promoting electrical conduction. If these materials were recovered from each individual electronic device intended for disposal it would be possible to put together decidedly remarkable figures.
The main problem has always been represented by the technology and the operations necessary to provide for recovery, complex and expensive: progress, however, led scientists to conceive a very rapid and effective procedure, which could mark a significant turning point in this specific area. As mentioned, it is a vast world, since, according to what was reported in the report “Global E-Waste Monitor 2024” made on behalf of the UN, 62 billion kilograms of electronic wastenor a quarter of these (just speak of 22.3%) has been recycled.
All electronic appliances contain traces of valuable metals, but according to a recent study by the hat of Zurich, there is one in particular precious way, since it contains traces of pure gold a 22 carat: These are the personal computer cards. To understand what the economic weight of a targeted recycling can be, we meet a report published on Advanced Materials: recovering the precious metal for only 20 Motherboards, in fact, a gold pepper has been created weighing 400 mg, worth about 33 dollars. Difficult to think of what value you could reach 100% of the materials recovered in the 62 billion kilograms of electronic waste produced in a year, but it would certainly be a amazing figure.
As anticipated, the major obstacle have always been the great costs of extraction, but nowadays this problem seems overcome. The Federal Polytechnic of Zurich, ETH, has conceived an innovative system by creating a sort of sponge of protein nanofibre capable of catalyzing the gold ions Starting from a simple by -product of the milk industry, or the serum. The first step is that of ionization, which is achieved with the merger of the metal parts of the electronic devices, then the absorption comes thanks to the “sponge” that succeeds and retain only the golden ions and finally the merger in small ingots of the precious metal collected.
Compared to the past, the steps forward are evident: to date, thanks to this progress, every dollar invested in the previous recovery activity the disposal can make even 50, a further strong incentive to proceed with the recycling.