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koukimonster91 t1_izxrdf2 wrote

Reply to comment by ubermeisters in Recycled gold from SIM cards could help make drugs more sustainable. Researchers have used gold extracted from electronic waste as catalysts for reactions that could be applied to making medicines. by MistWeaver80

Ewaste recycling is a big business and it very much is worth it to get the gold out.

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Jacuul t1_izxuvip wrote

Need large quantities though, production at scale as I imagine the cost to buy the chemicals necessary goes down the more you can do at once

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cmack482 t1_j00e2nd wrote

There's very very very little gold in a SIM card to begin with. They cost 2-3 dollars brand new, my guess is there's a few cents of gold.

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ubermeisters t1_izxwmcj wrote

no, it's not worth it to get the gold out. It's "worth it" to get paid by a larger company who doesn't want to deal with properly disposing/classifying/sorting of waste, but you get the gold as a bonus.

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koukimonster91 t1_izy5072 wrote

tell that to all the recycling company's making money from extracting precious metals out of electronics waste.

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cmack482 t1_j02mh2w wrote

You can absolutely get precious metal from electronic waste. The issue with this story is that the amount you would get off of a SIM card would be significantly less than the cost of a postage stamp for someone to mail it in.

If they magically stumbled on a giant bin of SIM cards, sure it would be worth it. But people go through so few of them that no one has a drawer of them sitting around waiting to be recycled like batteries or plastic bags.

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