Your old phone is a veritable gold mine
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2018
- E-waste is more than phones and laptops. There’s gold, silver, copper, and lots of other precious metals powering your electronics, and that makes for some valuable “e-waste”. And a recent study proposed that it’s now more cost-effective to dig minerals out of old electronics than out of the Earth. We crack open some old tech to see where these metals are hiding, and find out just how hard it is to reclaim them safely.
Clarification: in citing India, China, and South Africa as suffering from growing e-waste problems, we didn’t mention that those countries are also producing record amounts of their own e-waste, in addition to anything being imported from other countries. E-waste from all sources is on the rise, forcing governments to figure out how to deal with it safely and efficiently.
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What will happen to all our electronics if gold and other rare metals are depleted?
Please if you refer to a paper put a link below the video. for the love of science.
Asteroids and other moons
There is a lot of gold in the earth, like a lot
it happens only in USA. If you are from EU you can do it with calm mind. USA government does not care about environment. Same as China or India.
I think he's referring to the increased difficulty of mining gold and other precious metals.
2018: Your old phone is a veritable gold mine
2019: The dark side of electronic waste recycling
I know. 😭
Wtaf
Why did I think I was getting a "how to" video.
Your not alone.
Well... it kinda is a _"how to"_ video.
Yet, I was hoping for an other type as well...
true...here I was thinking how I was going to make extra money by taking apart my old electronic devices.
Same here ... I was like hmm I have 10 phones laying there ... until I went through the whole video
Go look for it on Cody's lab "precious metals refining"
So, you told me that recycled electronics get sent to other countries and ruin their environment, but you still want me to recycle?
Exactly, instead of throwing it in the recycling, find an e-waste facility near you and drop it off so it doesn't get thrown into the landfill.
"the US has problems with E-waste being shipped to developing countries and we can't process is properly right now so dig through you house and get rid of all of it so it does exactly what we just stated is a problem." because that makes sense?
I was just thinking he should be saying, hang on to your old electronics until a proper bill calls for the devices not to go to a 3rd world country.
And then the countries get blamed for pollution and get a tax.
@@Funkgun a bill? how about the corrupt leaders of those third world countries actually prohibiting the importation of E-waste? you must be liberal-democrat....force people in the bad U.S. to do the right things not the politicians in other countries doing their job.
The PS1, Newton and iBook we used in the video are safe and sound. Don't panic. - Cory
Verge Science Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh thank god
Ayy
thank god
And the walkman??
Those would have been a very solid reason for a dislike! This comment saved it xD
No, not the PlayStation. It's a legendary device. 😭😭😭
If you garbage it now, you potentially can lost a thousands because the older these devices get the more is their value. We can see this today with first iPhones, they cost thousands if in pristine condition.
Mine still works!
PC master race here. Why would you keep that old crappy machine?
+marceelino Nostalgia obviously. An emulator doesn't have the feeling of an old school console.
You do NOT represent the PC master race impostor.
Shit more like gather that stuff up and put it on eBay. Worth more there then the gold in them.
brian hilligoss a lot of people don't know the selling power for small electronics on ebay. They usually don't want to deal with selling and shipping the items also
@@rubyynn stupid
+Beach Looking Guy, and fees....
@@DanRossGraphics it's still a profit. recycling it has fees from the gas used to get to the drop-off and back.
There are other sites, like Olio. Also one can just throw it into box , find closest garage sale, go there and donate to soneone who can actually sell it. Also other way round - check sites like olio, ebay, craigslist and find someone who sells loads of old stuff from category You have. Then just contact this person and ask if they do not want your stuff.
There are also places with hobbyists who need old equip to salvage components from, look up for places like makerspaces.
One does nor simply recycle a PlayStation1
Andrei Laza so true.
As soon as i saw i thou the same, like hello?
One does or simply recycle?
I know this question boils down to perplexing human emotions domain, but, seriously humans need to be Spock sometimes and let go of emotions and be altruistic in nature for everyone's, especially for human's benefits.
Get that ps1 out of the box! Disgraceful
Repair, Reuse and only then Recycle. Recycling should be the last option.
Claire Blackshaw why would you reuse old tech from the 90s that are completely obsolete
juilan Rhodes In a lot of cases, as long as it works, it still has a purpose for someone
Obsolete for most, not all
Reusing means you don't need to buy more stuff. Buying more stuff will only fuel the cycle of waste.
juilan Rhodes hey hey, there was a Playstation 1! I'd be happy to have it.
Dominik Seljan We've still got one in our house!
That ps1 is vintage....how dare u
Highly suggestive title that wasn’t actually fulfilled
I didn't like the fact wood was considered a waste stream. Shred it to mix with greens to create rich compost for the rapid loss in soils the world is facing. Absolutely mental to me how little people actually compost natural materials. Plastics etc shouldn't exist as they have only one option but to end up in a dump pile or in rivers and oceans
I think AI is needed to take control of these processes, humans doesn't have the attention span to carry through with stuff like this, so making a automated process and a AI to collect e-waste and recycle them would help.
Of course you make sure that AIs don't think it's better to 'recycle' humans.
Plastic is also recyclable
Wood in these electronics is likely heavily chemically treated tho?
Plastics are made out of stuff on earth, lol so they probably should exist and would eventually they are actually genius, we wouldn't be as far as we are today if we didn't have plastic. Say goodbye to literally almost everything
"Old electronics are a gold mine, be sure to throw them out"
First telling people their waste destroys the lives of others, then encouraging them to make some more garbage! What exactly is the point you're making in this video?
Georgi Atanasov Encouraging to recycle is much more productive than encouraging to throw in a landfill!
. . . but we don't recycle, not really. Nine times out of ten, it is headed to India. So, I'm keeping my small heap until I die. After that, I can't do anything.
We are getting a lot better at recycling
How can the classic PlayStation be an electronic waste? How dare you!
Ale N64 is better
No! the saturn is the definite console of that generation! How dare you not worship our god SONIC
hyppu
Sega Megadrive 16-bit...
How dare you! ( with your modern fancy pantsy Sega Saturn )
But it is waste on of the biggest one
Keep up the good work guys
Nice video but i didnt like the title because you never actually show the process of digging thoes metals by yourself. The same as other videos
Agreed Santiago, The title is misleading.
Santiago Bejarano It's toxic and very hazardous to do so. Plenty of places will pay you for your used electronics if you know where to look.
Seriously ...? It's a gold mine is a euphemism in English. It means that something contains a large amount of something valuable, or is in itself valuable. It doesn't mean you are literally mining for something,
making every viewers fool
Never knew my old iPhone or tv was made of wood. Here I thought those where smart devices not furniture
Thanks for making such informative videos!
Thank you Verge for making amazing and interesting videos all the time. Love you guys!
"Ripped apart, smashed into tiny little pieces, shredded"
*sobs uncontrollably* 😭
I love the new science channel keep it up you earned a subscriber that never seeks out verge content.
so basically nothing ever get truly recycled
@0:47 I remember having problems closing my ps1 just like that
It is time to pass laws making the companies that manufacture these electronics responsible for taking it all back.
Do more videos like this..... Thanks for the great content.
Repair is better than recycling, if repair can't help then recycle. The longer you use a device the longer you keep those other materials like fiberglass out of landfills. Better for the environment.
I really like this channel. You guys are putting a lot of effort in researching about any topic you come up with every week and that's awesome. Just keep em coming.
If you like this than I'm sure you will also love Teletubbies and Blues clues!!!
Since they require the same amount of research and intellect to enjoy.
Hi Verge Science, kindly provide the source for the statement that eWaste from the US makes its way to South Africa (my country).
thanks.
Hi Gola, the UN released a report a few years back that highlighted the surge in e-waste that South Africa was facing, much of it from increased consumption of electronics within South Africa. That study is summarized here:
unu.edu/media-relations/releases/urgent-need-to-prepare-developing-countries-for-surge-in-e-wastes-un.html
Additionally, there have been reports of e-waste improperly finding its way from the US to other countries including South Africa - there are a number of watchdog orgs that track this. It's wayyyy too easy for big companies or even philanthropic initiatives to lose track of bits and pieces of their "recycling supply chain". Here's one of the case studies citing South Africa:
archive.ban.org/ban_news/2009/090610_epa_files_legal_action.html
That being said, we didn't mean to imply that all of South Africa's e-waste was arriving from the US. We're adding a clarification in the video description to reflect this. Thanks for checking in with us on that!
Verge Science thanks for the informative reply.
Yeah, South Africa is developed all right.
@@VergeScience oh, well, if it's a report from the UN it HAS to be nothing but the golden truth. Too bad they're one of the most corrupt organizations on the planet, only second to their number one source of funding...the U.S. Government.
@@douglasgoldstein8990 Wow, thanks for contributing so much to this conversation with all your sources and information!!!
Real cool what you're doing here, Cory. Come a long way since high school
such science, much verge
I see an iBook clamshell… that’s not trash!!!
Working it's $100+ on Ebay... and going up.
Tell us how to extract gold from our electronics. I'm onboard
D18rulez it’s not worth it unless you have A LOT e waste.
D18rulez
Just go see Cody at Codys Lab channel 😂👍
Here in India we repair phones as much as possible reason is that people don't have enough money but at least it's good for environment . In Developed countries people replace electronic to buy newer version or updated devices
I wish more people here in the United States would fix their old electronics instead of being wasteful and throwing them away. you wouldn't believe what people throw away here, I go to e-waste bins and take stuff out for myself, and I once got a Galaxy s9 and an iPhone 8 plus all in one go. The Galaxy s9 is now my main phone, it's 64gb unlocked and flawless condition.
Murfee 123
Where might you be dinding these e-waste bins please!!?!?
love your channel, it feeds my inner nerd lol. Subscribed
I Scrap e-Waste as a business in Florida. All of the material is valuable. I waste nothing. Everything gets separated. Metal gets melted, Plastic and Glass go to the recycler. Circuit boards are stripped, and the resulting materials are sorted. Even Precious Metal extraction can be done with safer methods that use electricity instead of acids. The plastics can be burned for energy if the fumes are trapped and scrubbed. Or they can be pyrolized and used for other materials. All of that material is valuable. It is important to sort like materials together and process them correctly. Unfortunately, it is definitely minimum-wage work.
Can't we reuse the circuit boards to make something useful instead of stripping them? They are intricately designed..
Oh wow, so if I literally have a TON of old phones, I can get a lot of gold out of them! Sweet!
Sounds like I should hold onto all my electronics...
A year later and this is still a serious problem and growing industry
Ayyyyyyyy I see some lighthouses on that coffee table!
You have a nice interior design aesthetic bro
.
This channel has very high quality content it deserves more views
I'm an electrical engineer and just by looking at an e waste is mouthwatering. There's so much electrical stuff in there I want to salvage!!
I love this channel. It's my new science daily.
Shiv Karthik, the same, I use to watch Vox, but now I prefer that one
Vox is the same company
I want to know how to take that gold for myself instead of giving it to someone so that they can resell it lol
This channel will grow fast
That PS1 brought me memories! :')
Big Salute 🙏🙏
There's Gold In Them Thar Electronics!
Ok, I’m going to find some gold now
I thought it was everything that ended up in the desktop recycle bin
Very useful video👌👍
i think i found a new hobby
mining for gold in e waste
So first you say dont do it, but then you finish with go ahead and do it. Makes perfect sense.
3:23 damn there’s still a functioning macbook somewhere there
Last year I make photo story about this e-waste for my photography project, this video imo is what I want to share to the world, great video, mannn
I can take those Apple products off your hands if you want…
Timothé Dorez same
Did he seriously opened the first iPhone?
"The stuff that just needs to be thrown into the waste stream like plastic and wood" I work in a plastics factory and last time I checked it was recyclable. 🤔
People who collect old electronics: *nervous sweating*
GOLD IS GOLD!
this is a huge reason why goodwill in the pacific northwest of the united states increased their “non profit” profits.
e-waste recycling has been a game changing money maker for them. stuff that doesn’t sell in their retail stores gets shipped to their outlets. electronics are broken down to base components and put into big containers weighing around 1000lbs. keyboards have a mylar sheet inside full of silver, cords are cut off as they are just copper essentially.
it went from paying someone to haul away the junk, to doing some minor work and making more per item recycled than they get selling the working item in stores.
this is where the line gets blurry.
the rules state that every donation must be made available to be bought, but a lot of things are now being funneled directly to their recycling centers to be dismantled and sold for their raw materials.
thanks for doing
So basically we have a gold mines in our closets, basements and attics...ssSpectacular!
Seems like if e-waste has such a high potential value, consumers ought to be able to get a little compensation for turning electronics in, as in states like California, Hawaii, and Maine that pay you for recycling your beverage containers.
In Malaysia we usually sell old items and people would like to buy it, so not much of waste :D
If i were you, i would still use every thing and not "recycle" them for gold, tech is vey valuable.
Note: One ton of cell phones is over 8,000 for the 11 or so oz of gold and hundreds of pounds of toxic waste after your time, sweat, and expenses. How many hours just to touch 8 thousand things just once and drop them let alone dissemble and process them. The other waste has way less gold. And mining gold is a price issue, not plenty of gold to sell issue. Copper is a lot more dire.
What about the Realistic HTX-202 ham radio? That you could eBay! They're bulky but they're still good rigs.
As an Apple collector I can’t even think of giving one of my baby’s there...
Damn; I thought this was gonna teach me how to take those metals out and sell them.
BRB about to start an e-waste business
Where do I sell the e-waste?
E-waste outlets should buy electronics from us, I bet plenty will hand them in with incentives.
The video was very good to get very new information.
Hay, thanks i love your videos you
China called, and said they don't want your wastes.
dra6o0n
Is OK, they've figured it out, they're shipping it back out to the world reformed into "Wish" products.
👍
Linus went to a place in Taiwan I think, to a factory that deals with said materials. Even the rags they used to wipe down circuit boards where collected, washed, and the amount of metal collected was mind blowing. Even a rag, turns into 100,000 rags and so does the precious materials
what do we get from htc desire , lenovo vibe and old phones ?
Tells us theirs gold in our stuff then wants us to give it away nope lol
So how do you separate the gold ?
E-waste recycling is a very important topic, it should be covered more.
Old rundown telephones are a goldmine and how benevolent it is that there are companies who help the public get rid of their old goldmines.
*get rich quick scheme*
Good Documentary. But in the end you guys didn't offer any insight about better way to recycle electronics. It's some where along the line "it's bad, but keep doing it anyway." I would love to see you guys dig deeper and give us some more. Keep up the good works guys!
Why sending people in mines when you can find gold in phones and shits :o
So if I get enough phones, I'll just rip them apart, take out the gold, and be *RICH!* 💸
Consoles I think are the one of the few electronics that makes sense to keep since modern consoles don't have full backwards compatibility like the PC and certainly not all of the old games are playable on new platforms.
How dare you touch these relics ?
I love this!
Not the iPhone 2G and the iBook clamshell! :(
iPhone is old for him ? rofl: I heard some ppl in my country are collecting old Nokias for gold.
I reuse my old electronics opening them and reusing some of the components for my own circuits. =) There's a lot of good things: LEDs, Speakers, Resistors, ICs... An much more.
👍
I laughed when he pulled ram out from under his bed, then I remembered i jammed a stick under my bathroom door to get a good air flow in the house.
I really like this channel
ya its like watching ANIMATED movies. u can fell, pain or sarrow or even get a moral in sentence but u cant apply it on own life or share it to people that kinds proudly
Gold is Gold
I want that Play Station. Will pay for it
no the ps1!!
Really like you your channel. For the geek in me, is there a chance that you link the papers and articles you rely on for your videos? Would be great for somebody who wants more details on the issue and it would make your videos (even) more trustworthy. Cheers
Lukas S-R Hey! Many of the papers we reference are hidden behind pesky paywalls, but here is the main paper we reference that spurred the idea for the video: pubs.acs.org/doi/ipdf/10.1021/acs.est.7b04909
I wish I could link directly to the pdf, but unfortunately we can’t distribute copies directly. Hope this helps! - Cory
Hey Cory, thanks a lot for your answer! Absolutely, I'm aware of the copyrights for papers, still, just wondered if you ever thought about referencing (some of) the literature you used for your videos, as your topics are often worth a deeper look (for example like Vox' podcast wordly does in their podcast description)
Why did you leave out the cost comparison of mining from e-waste compared to gold mining?
I was hoping to see how we can melt and separate gold at home... Sounds like a job for the King of Random lol 😂
Mathäus Wegert
Codys Lab