Special metals are being thrown away!
Gold, copper, platinum and palladium are all precious metals Australians are throwing away by sending old televisions, telephones and computers overseas.
But Dr JC Tan of UniSA said “it was perhaps less evident what happened to whitegoods and other electronic devices when they were sent to recycling depots”.
“Currently in Australia there’s no one doing 100 per cent recycling,” he said.
He also said “scientists at the university were developing what they called ‘urban mining'”.
“It is a process of reclaiming resources from all this electronic waste. We are talking about the reuse and [increasing] the recycling value of this e-waste,” he stated.
Most electronic waste is collected then sent to be shredded and shipped to China.
