“Electronic waste or e-waste is increasing and it is a problem,” Scorch informed Orak, Felix, and Verum. E-waste consists of all electronic devices such as mobile phones, batteries, computers, television, wires, etc. that are thrown away.
“True, every year millions of such electronics are discarded,” Verum said.
“But is there a solution to tackle the e-waste problem?” Orak said.
“Let’s say we have a golden solution,” chuckled Scorch as she took out a gold coin from thin air like magic and showed it to her friends.
“The Royal Mint is a government-owned mint that produces coins for the United Kingdom (UK). It has found a way to turn the e-waste into gold!” Scorch said.
“What? How is that possible?” Felix said.
“Electronic devices have circuit boards in them. They connect different components of electronic devices. Circuit boards have metals such as cold, copper, nickel, and silver.
The Royal Mint places the circuit boards in a secret solution. The chemicals in the solution extract what’s inside to produce a brown powder. It is heated for 30 minutes at more than 1,000 degrees C and the shiny product is formed – gold!
In this way, the Royal Mint is planning to produce commemorative (in the memory of an event) coins from e-waste,” Scorch said.
“A brilliant idea!” Orak said.
“Currently, The Royal Mint is only operating in a lab. But the company wants to expand. They want to turn 90 tonnes of e-waste into gold every week!” Scorch said.
“I had no idea mobile phones or other electronic devices had gold!” Felix said.
“On average, a mobile phone contains 0.04g of gold. It is worth €1.50 to €2. Every year, 50 million tonnes of e-waste are produced in the world. But only 20% of it is recycled (reused),” Scorch added.
“We need more such solutions to reduce e-waste!” Verum said.
“Yes,” Scorch said.