Britons Urged To Dig Out Unwanted Electricals To Tackle Copper Shortage (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0175210667
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/10/08/1217251/britons-urged-to-dig-out-unwanted-electricals-to-tackle-copper-shortage
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/08/britons-urged-to-dig-out-unwanted-electricals-to-tackle-copper-shortage
> The research found that in the UK there are approximately 823m unused or broken tech items hiding in "drawers of doom" containing as much as 38,449 tonnes of copper -- including 627m cables -- enough to provide 30% of the copper needed for the UK's planned transition to a decarbonised electricity grid by 2030.
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> Copper is essential in the drive to decarbonise the economy -- being a crucial element of solar and wind developments as well as electric cars. The study found that unused electrical goods could contain as much as $349m worth of copper. Scott Butler, from Recycle Your Electricals, which produced the study, called on the public to start recycling their unwanted electrical goods. "We need to start 'urban mining' and help protect the planet and nature from the harmful impacts of mining for raw materials and instead value and use what we have already." Butler added that people often do not realise that cables and electricals contain valuable materials. "If binned or stashed, we lose everything inside them." The group is now urging everyone to check its "recycling locator" for their nearest facility.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/08/britons-urged-to-dig-out-unwanted-electricals-to-tackle-copper-shortage
Just walk to the (Score:1)
...Department of Funny Devices.
Copper price (Score:2)
Copper price is currently [1]$4.41 per pound [tradingeconomics.com], so you're not really losing much money by recycling your old cables.
If you have a million pounds of old cables lying around, yes, you might want to sell them for scrap metal prices, but a drawer full of old SCSI and dead ethernet cables, not worth the bother.
[1] https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/copper
Re: (Score:2)
> a drawer full of old SCSI and dead ethernet cables
is worth a lot more money on eBay to sell to "retrocomputing" enthusiasts.
I'm old enough now to understand what my mom used to tell me: vintage is the old shit young people of today buy at crazy prices that we couldn't be rid of fast enough when better things came along.
I entered the job market when the norm was beige PC clones with floppy drives. I never want to see a beige PC or floppy drives - or floppies - ever again. But apparently that shit is worth money today.
So yeah, if I hadn't binned that stuff d
I suspect this is yet another mess (Score:2)
caused by Brexit. Brexit has caused a ton of supply chain issues. It really is the gift that keeps on giving.
It doesn't matter what the price of a commodity is if you can't get it into your country because the confusion and chaos.
I suspect that as soon as the baby boomer generation shuffles off this great mortal coil the UK will rejoin the EU. But those old codgers have really dug their feet in. Sunk costs. They don't want to admit they were wrong. Also most of 'em are still doing alright (having gr
ring circuits (Score:2)
We bringing back ring circuits too?
Always a good sign (Score:1)
I'm all for recycling, but it's definitely a good sign for your economy when scavenging like a zombie movie is the only way to continue, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe, if you consider resource allocation. I mean, I have some SCSI-2 devices that have sat on a shelf for over 20 years - I'm waiting for a customer to call and say they have an emergency that only a SCSI-2 device can fix; I'll be ready, by golly - that can probably be melted down and reused as something more appropriate for our time. I'm sure lots of devices sitting in homes, and warehouses are like that, too. Why *not* recycle that and put it to better use? Clear up some clutter at the same time.
recycling (Score:2)
In my town I can drive copper-rich waste like this to my local recycling center and drop it in a big bin of ewaste (which gets "gleaned" by the locals before the authorities pick it up), but I can't put it in the recycling can and push it to the kerb. Recycling is so badly broken here.
But then I recently stayed at another person's home and saw what mixed up crap they put in their recyle bin, so the system doesn't really stand much of a chance
Copper Recycling (Score:3)
Anything less than 14 AWG (2 mm^2) is a PITA to recycle and not worth
the effort (unless you are allowed to burn the insulation). And that's after removing the cable from the device / structure / etc.
So all this copper has value *after* dumping hours of labor into recycling it.
Re: (Score:1)
They burn the insulation off in most of the world. A few places do that cleanly.
Lol (Score:2)
Britain having to ask people to do this, meanwhile over here in the US we have plenty of meth addicts doing it for free :).
including 627m cables (Score:3)
I thought: what are they going to gain with 627 meters of cable? Then it dawned on me: the SI system remains difficult in the English speaking part of the world...
Re: (Score:2)
The international system system?
Lost? Where did our garbage get sent? (Score:2)
TFS: "If binned or stashed, we lose everything inside them."
If binned, they go to the landfill. Go urban mine that!
If stashed, they're not lost at all. Furthermore, it'd be better to reuse them for their intended purpose where possible, not toss them into recycling.
I keep expecting the day when all the garbage dumps get bought out by mining (recycling?) operations. But I guess that will come after the garbage pipeline has monetized the stream of incoming garbage (easier to separate, especially once you get
Quite telling (Score:2)
That's the sort of thing asked of the population during wartime restrictions or extreme poverty. I'm not saying it's bad advice, but the fact that it's given at all is indicative of the state of the economy in the UK.
How's that Brexit doing for you? (Score:2)
You're literally melting down old bits of copper.
And before anyone says "It's not Brexit!" here I am in America and I've got plenty of copper.
Urban mining in your house (Score:1)
Urban mining in your house and eating insects, I see where this is going...