Gold Re-cycling

Humans pollute the air in many ways from smoking cigarette to driving a car, but the single most polluting activity done on Earth is mining for gold. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), mercury pollution from trash incineration, hazardous waste collection, and mercury mining combined still does not add up to half the total amount of mercury pollution made by gold mining (Ingenthron, 2004).

In 1998, an overall recycling rate of 29 percent was reached when consumed scrap was compared to domestic supply (Amey, 2005). Old scrap consists of jewelry, dental materials, plating solutions, electronic equipment etc. and new scrap are usually industrial and is nearly completely recycled or recirculated. The recycling rate for old scrap is at 96 percent which amounted to 175 metric tons (Amey, 2005). Not all gold can be recovered from recycled items, for example; it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain the gold out of electronic products that are becoming more miniaturized. The high percentage of recycling is attributed to the high value placed on the mineral. An estimated 85 percent of all the gold ever mined can be accounted for (Amey, 2005). The missing 15 percent has either been lost or used in some kind of industrial process where it is cannot be readily retrieved (Amey, 2005).

After gold has been mined, approximately 63 percent is used in jewelry (which includes art), 21 percent as coins, 15 percent in some kind of industrial use including electronics, and the other 1 percent in dental (Amey, 2005). Since jewelry and coins are usually kept as collector pieces, family heirlooms, or personal wear, the highest percentage of gold that can be recycled by the average person is in their electronics.

The handling, accountability, and security in the generation, collection, and distribution part of the recycling industries is usually very extensive and elaborate. Many times all items that even come in contact with the gold is also processed to obtain as much of the gold as possible. This includes the gloves, aprons, and dust masks worn by the workers and the tools used to dust or sweep the shops. Even the floors are burned just to recover any gold that may be on them (Amey, 2005).

During the recycling process, any impurities including lead, copper, and silver that are found during the process are gathered into a “sludge” (Amey, 2005). This “sludge” contains all the platinum-group metals, which are recovered through various other methods (Amey, 2005).

The Vermont Recycler Registers have a patent for a method they use in making “100% recycled content” wedding rings from recycled computers. This idea was done to help provide an alternative to mining gold, and to help promote computer recycling (Ingenthron, 2004).