Urban Mining of E-Waste is Becoming More Cost-Effective Than Virgin Mining

TLDR

Stocks of virgin‑mined materials in linear economies pose enormous challenges, while e‑waste is rapidly growing into a global problem, and urban mining—extracting precious metals from waste—offers a viable management and environmental improvement strategy. This study demonstrates, using real cost data from Chinese e‑waste processors, that ingots of pure copper and gold can be recovered at costs comparable to virgin mining of ores. The results, limited to copper and gold from recycled TV sets, suggest a trend that, if extended to other metals and regions, could positively impact waste disposal and mining worldwide as the circular economy replaces linear pathways.

Abstract

Stocks of virgin-mined materials utilized in linear economic flows continue to present enormous challenges. E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams, and threatens to grow into a global problem of unmanageable proportions. An effective form of management of resource recycling and environmental improvement is available, in the form of extraction and purification of precious metals taken from waste streams, in a process known as urban mining. In this work, we demonstrate utilizing real cost data from e-waste processors in China that ingots of pure copper and gold could be recovered from e-waste streams at costs that are comparable to those encountered in virgin mining of ores. Our results are confined to the cases of copper and gold extracted and processed from e-waste streams made up of recycled TV sets, but these results indicate a trend and potential if applied across a broader range of e-waste sources and metals extracted. If these results can be extended to other metals and countries, they promise to have positive impact on waste disposal and mining activities globally, as the circular economy comes to displace linear economic pathways.