Have you ever thought about changing the phone? Computer? TV? or any appliance, I'm sure the answer is yes. And surely you have done it and surely you do not know what to do with the old item that you had and you put it in the trash, so stop, let me tell you that you are throwing a treasure to the garbage container.

What is this all about?

WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) are those that we generate many times without realizing, when we throw some equipment from our homes that "I stop working" tons and tons of waste of this type are generated in the world, which They do not know much is the great economic value that "garbage" has.

In addition to recycling we are generating profits

For many in complicated to believe, but our computers, and electronic equipment that no longer serves, are a precious metal mine, which in many places can be sold and these extract different metals to be used again, did you know ?, I think that now you will think twice before throwing away that old phone that no longer serves or steps on paper. Among the many metals is the gold, if you read it, gold is used to improve conductivity, and this is found in most of our devices such as microprocessors, RAM, motherboards and even hard drives.

How much gold can exist in these devices?

Many companies worldwide recycle these products as for example the German recycling company: Reimondis, in this company estimate that a cell phone can have up to 23 milligrams of gold, and in the world approximately 1.300 million cell phones are discarded, of these it is recycled like 10%, which means that we humans are throwing away between 20 and 22 tons of GOLD a year, which fools right?


What is inside these teams?

Electrical equipment contains two types of waste, recyclable and recoverable, and contains toxic substances such as lead, mercury, beryllium, cadmium, etc. (these must be replaced), on average WEEE contains 25% reusable material 72% recyclable material (plastic, precious metals, copper, gold, aluminum, tin, nickel in the plates, etc), and the remaining toxic substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, cfc, polychlorinated, arsenic, among many others.

How are these materials recycled?

The recycling of WEEE or Urban mining, is based on obtaining the most valuable waste, then process it and reuse it in industries or even in jewelers, recycling represents the cleaning process without having to access mining extraction . That's right, a cleaner process and hand in hand with the environment, then you would be generating profits and helping to build a greener planet. The methods most used to perform these processes are the calcination for non-metallic components at high temperature, better known as pyrometallurgic and the dissolution with acids (leaching) then other processes are applied to recover the separated metals in the purest way possible. (Although these processes are not friendly to the environment, I think it is better than mining, since it would be to close a cycle by reusing materials without having to resort to the exploitation of more natural resources.)

I still do not understand anything, so will I become a millionaire with my garbage?

You will not become a millionaire, and I'm not telling you that you should do the processes that I mentioned, but if you can generate extra profits and help the environment by selling these equipment, search and investigate places in your city, I assure you that some person or company will be Interested in this "garbage", besides the end you thought of throwing it out right ?.

Now you understand why they say that your trash can be the treasure of others, right? The best way to have a sustainable world is to inform us, sharing and understanding what we can do for a greener planet.

@raquel.ramirezv