by David Clendon
I hope Gerry Brownlee and his pro-mining supporters read Good magazine. In the latest issue there is a very informative article “Sitting on a Gold Mine” that confirms that there is plenty of gold already above ground, and begs the question of why we would sacrifice our conservation estate to dig up any more.
Quoting the U.S. Geological Survey, Good reveals that a tonne of ore might yield a little over 4.5 grams of gold. A tonne of circuit boards -‘electronic scrap’ – on the other hand, might yield more than twice that amount, over ten grams, depending on the age of the equipment.
A tonne of discarded mobile phones could contribute not only 300 grams of gold, but also 140 grams of copper and 130 grams of silver
So why would you mine the planet, destroying ecosystems and communities, when we could and should be mining the so-called ‘waste’ stream?
Michael Braungart’s ‘Cradle to Cradle’ approach already provides a template, advocating for product and process design based on the principle that ‘waste equals food’ as it does in Nature.
We can and in some cases do design products that provide ‘nourishment’ for something new, either as safe ‘biological nutrients’, or as ‘technical nutrients’ that can circulate within a closed loop industrial cycle, ‘upcycled’ rather than re-used (if at all) for low grade uses.
The ideas are there, the technology is fast evolving, it just takes some political will and an acknowledgement that 19th century solutions will not resolve 21st century challenges.
Published in Economy, Work, & Welfare | Environment & Resource Management by David Clendon on Mon, June 14th, 2010
Tags: David Clendon, good magazine, Green Party, mining, Waste
More posts by David Clendon | more about David Clendon
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Loading...
Like or Dislike:
9 
0 (+9)
Like or Dislike:
8 
0 (+8)
What pseudopanax said.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0 (0)
a little extend to your blog topic, DC, but this morning some reports began appearing on Afghanistan’s “huge” minerals wealth (whether actual or prospective I’m not sure yet)… but,, one wonders whether the government’s mining intent is not so much a ‘map-the-farm’ exercise as systemic thinking. ie. troops to afghanistan may alot a share in the spoils as it were.. for such folk.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0 (0)
You only need to feel the weight of a magnetron from a microwave oven to know that there must be a hell of a lot of metal in the landfils.
Like or Dislike:
3 
0 (+3)
The latest Consumer magazine promotes something similar, their article “Animal, vegetable or mineral-Is mining public conservation land worth it?” makes good reading.
Like or Dislike:
4 
0 (+4)
Yeah, are there ways to get the precious minerals out without exposing people to toxic poisoning? I know there are big problems with this in Asia – people pickign through discarded electronics without proper safety gear.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0 (+1)
I even had a placard with this on it, at the Queen St anti mining march, but no one seemed to be interested. I put it in my submission to Gerry Brownly and mentioned it to Catherine D. – A case of the little person not knowing what they are talking about?????
Like or Dislike:
2 
0 (+2)
Container loads of this ‘waste’ is sent daily to countries like Nigeria/Ghana etc. from Europe, where completely unsafe methods are used to ‘recover’ metals e.g. burning all the plastic off them, ending up with a melted pile of crap which is then sold on. The poor who burn the scrap earn pennies and probably end up dying young from any number of horrible diseases from the smoke which billows over the slum camps all over Lagos for example.
I first saw this in 1975 – 35 years ago, mainly burning TV’s! and it carries on today.
Source – personal eyeballing – bbc.co.uk, channel4.com/unreportedworld
Like or Dislike:
1 
0 (+1)
Yes, just as recycling aluminium cans is better than smelting bauxite – requires a different technology, but the wastage is less and the product easier to get.
We shouldn’t be dumping anything at all! It should all be put through a sorting process. Again, however, the big waste ‘disposal’ companies need lots of trash to keep them in business.
Like or Dislike:
2 
0 (+2)
If we all start recycling cell phones we can save a lot of man hours. Our company specializes in refurbished and used cell phones and we have been saving tons of materials each year from ending up in landfills. Great article!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0 (0)