Scientists have called for people to go “urban mining” after a study revealed that old cables, phone chargers and other unused electrical goods thrown away or stored in cupboards or drawers could stave off a looming shortage of copper. 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.Patriots in WWII contributed their spare metal objects to help build Spitfires for the war effort, and clearly, this inspired a PR bod to try the same thing, with a far more imaginary foe than the Nazis.
Scott Butler, from Recycle Your Electricals, which produced the study, called on the public to start recycling their unwanted electrical goods.
Nice try, I suppose.
8 comments:
I've amassed lots of old chargers, cables and so on: they're sorted and stacked and so could easily be offered up to this latest initiative. The only problem is that the begging post is on behalf of yet another wastemonster fantasy so I'm more likely to bury them in an unmarked grave or drop them into the sea somewhere.
I checked the recycling locator given in the article. They have a very comprehensive list of electrical items which can be recycled. Now I know where to take that old dildo which no longer works
If you strip out the copper you can take it to the scrap metal dealer and weigh it in. That way you don't have to donate to the wastemonster and you get yourself some spare cash.
Stonyground.
After rewiring the barns, I have lots of old copper cables in there.
I will recycle them after EVs are banned.
£226 million! It is an incredibly * precise number.
*In the true, pre-hype era, sense - "I do not believe it." Thank you Victor.
We already have willing volunteers, roaming the country, doing this recycling. If you are lucky some of them will come and set up camp in a farmer's field or public park near you.
Re. the war collections. All those beautiful cast iron fences were destroyed for no good reason. Engineers found out quite early on that Spitfires made of iron or even steel do not fly well. So the whole effort by responsible citizens was about as useful as the whole nation having multiple ( anti) covid jabs.
"for the UK’s planned transition to a decarbonised electricity grid by 2030" eh. An excellent reason to hoard copper.
Yep, been doing that for years!
"The only problem is that the begging post is on behalf of yet another wastemonster fantasy so I'm more likely to bury them in an unmarked grave or drop them into the sea somewhere."
There are some better suggestions further down-thread!
"Now I know where to take that old dildo which no longer works"
No way to talk about the boyfriend! 😨
"...and you get yourself some spare cash."
Ideal!
"We already have willing volunteers, roaming the country, doing this recycling. If you are lucky some of them will come and set up camp in a farmer's field or public park near you."
Heh!
"An excellent reason to hoard copper."
Or sell it?
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