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We burn gold and platinum worth billions every year - what's the real value of electronic waste?

We burn gold and platinum worth billions every year - what's the real value of electronic waste?
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By Doloresz Katanich with AP
Published on •Updated
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The UN estimates that the total value of retrievable materials from dumped and burned electronics is €50 billion.

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We create mountains of hazardous electrical waste each year according to a new report from the UN.

The comparatively low cost of electronics means that it’s cheaper for companies to dump or burn discarded gadgets, than it is to extract the raw materials. Therefore metals like gold, silver, copper, and platinum worth billions go to waste every year.

But environmental scientists have a new approach to ending this damaging, linear approach to technological consumerism.

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