Throwing something away that is urgently needed, expensive and difficult to source sounds crazy. Yet out of the 60 metals contained in old electronic devices like phones, screens or washing machines, only a few get recycled. That includes precious metals like gold or silver and some other metals like aluminium or copper. The rest are effectively single-use metals, used once then lost during collection or through incineration.
Metals are mined from ore and refined by using a lot of energy and resources as part of complex global supply chains. Think of the diesel needed to power the huge trucks in the mine, the chemicals needed to extract the metals from the ores or the pollution from intense furnaces.
