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Article: Electronic waste gets the Midas touch.(Business Report)
- Article from:
- The Star (South Africa)
- Article date:
- March 5, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Independent News & Media PLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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BYLINE: Jeremy van Loon
One MAN'S waste is another's gold. Or so Norddeutsche Affinerie has discovered.
Germans throw away about 24 million cellphones each year, almost one for every three residents, violating a law against electronic waste. Added up, that's almost half a ton of gold that can be melted out of the circuitry of discarded cellphones and computers.
That means the precious metals refinery that Norddeutsche Affinerie operates in Germany, where the economy is suffering from its worst recession since World War II, is running at full speed forging gold bars out of cellphones and computer carcasses.
"Electronic waste is a ...