Germany discovered that One man's waste is another's gold.

Germans throw away about 24 million mobile phones each year. It adds up to almost a half-ton of gold that can be melted out of the circuitry of discarded mobile phones and computers.

That means the precious-metals refinery that Norddeutsche Affinerie operates in Germany, is running at full speed forging gold bars out of the carcasses of German mobile phones and PCs.

Kevin Brigden, a scientist at Greenpeace in the UK, said that electronic waste is a tremendous resource but it is not being managed effectively. Phones and computers need to be designed so recyclers can easily extract the “pot of gold” in the waste.

The Hamburg-based refiner, one of a handful of precious- metal recycling firms in the world, recovers about 3.5 tons of gold worth some $110 million each year from mobile phones and other electronic scrap.

Amsterdam-based Philips is investing ¤1 billion ($1.25 billion) until 2012 designing products to be recycled more easily that contain fewer chemicals and feature other “green” innovations.

Gold in trash?

Even with a law against electronic waste, Germans toss out 438 kilograms of gold with their old phones and computers every year along with 191 kilos of palladium, used in catalytic converters.
According to the Environment Ministry, electronic waste is growing three times faster than regular household garbage.

Fine for electronic waste

Germany passed a law in 2005 based on a European directive stipulating that electronic waste be recycled, not just thrown away. The law requires manufacturers to finance the collection and recycling of discarded electronic equipment.

Germans disposed of 750,000 tons of old electronic equipment in 2006, the most recent figures, of which 102,000 tons was phones, computers and printers. Gold, meanwhile, topped $1,000 an ounce on February 20 for the first time in 11 months.

Thierry Van Kerckhoven, Umicore’s global sales manager for electronic scrap said that the policy makers will have to spend more money on designing a recycling system if they want to pollute less and recover more material.