Our addiction to tech is bring about vast amounts of atomic number 99 - wastefulness – 45 million tonnes ( 50 million US tons ) of it to be precise , according to a2016 UN survey . To put this into position , that is close to the same exercising weight as 4,500 Eiffel Towers . climb up incomes , falling prices , and a develop demand for gadgets , gizmos , and other electric good means we can only expect the figure to keep going up , which is in effect news for tech company but bad intelligence for the environment .
presently , only20 percentof that waste is being recycle . However , a new method outlined in the journalSmallcould make the practice of recycling metallic element - coated SIM cards and other electronics a whole lot easier and more affordable . The technique makes function of ultrasound and a process ring cavitation , when sound is pumped through a liquid to grow midget bubble .
First , an extremely fine layer of a cheap wetting agent is used to cover the SIM visiting card . The team then reprize the appendage with a second eccentric of surfactant before submerge the SIM in water . wetting agent serve to lower the surface stress between two substances so that when ultrasonic Wave are introduced , microscopical bubbles are relinquish , raising insistency and temperature ( which can reach heights of 4700 ° C ) , and causing microjets of gold molecule to expel from the SIM and get caught in the liquids . afterward , the Au can be collected and recycled .
method currently used to draw out metallic element necessitate toxic dissolver and cremation and , therefore , release harmful pith into the atm . In contrast , Dale Huber of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque , New Mexico , who worked on the paper , has say this raw cognitive operation is low - cost , has very little impingement on the environment , and can be used to help tackle the growing problem of lay waste to metal in chuck out electronics .
In 2016,more than $ 20 billion worth of goldwas merely chucked away as einsteinium - waste . Other precious metals such as atomic number 47 , bull , atomic number 78 , and palladium are also being thrown forth . The researchers hope this new method could aid trammel the amount of raw alloy waste in futurity – and even , peradventure , reduce the amount presently sit in landfill .
“ It could be apply to reclaim some of the $ 3.5 billion - worth of atomic number 46 wastefulness , and while requiring further investigation , it should be applicable to rare - earth metal , the next target we ’ll investigate in detail , ” added Huber , speaking toNew Scientist .
