Crack open your dumb old phone, and you’ll find lots of circuits and no lack of precious metals. "In 100,000 cell phones, it’s estimated that there is 2.4 kilograms of gold, more than 900 kilograms of copper, 25 kilograms of silver, and more," according to Motherboard. Could a safer and and cheaper method of recovering that metal come by way of fungi?
A title that no country would like to own would be that of being the world’s largest e-waste polluter, and unfortunately for those living in the US, the country remains right at the top of the list, although they do have China biting at their heels. This bit of information was gleaned from an U.N think tank study. When it comes to e-waste, it will include phones, televisions, laptops and computers, which would eventually pose a certain degree of danger to humans and the environment alike because of lead, mercury and other kinds of poisonous toxins that are present in batteries.
In the StEP initiative, it was reported that the US actually dumped in over 9.4 million metric tons of e-waste in 2012 alone, which would be an additional 2 million metric tons compared to China. If one were to look at it based on a Per Capita calculation, each person living in the US would be responsible for 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of e-waste, which is more than four times that of the global average of 7 kilograms (15 pounds) per person. There is no real winners in such a study, so with word that China is about to catch up with the US in this aspect, the whole world loses in the long run.
US Is Largest E-Waste Polluter In The World original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Recycling e-waste is kind of important. Our devices are full of heavy metals and toxins that probably shouldn’t just chill in landfills. But iPhone repair company Twice Used is designing housewares that put a new spin on old handsets.
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E-waste is an environmental nightmare
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While American consumers clamor for the latest and greatest in consumer electronics, our older digital devices are inundating and poisoning a generation of children in Ghana. Colorado Springs Gazette photographer Michael Ciaglo recently visited the largest e-waste processing site in the African nation and returned with some very damning images. That new iPhone of yours had better be worth it.
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Network World has an excellent pictorial slideshow that shows us just how ridiculous our neophilia has gotten. While it’s weak sauce coming from a site that celebrates the new, it’s clear that our constant drive to upgrade, improve, and innovate, has its drawbacks.
The slideshow gives us a fairly sanitized peek inside a number of recycling facilities, including a few photos of the decades-old Minitel recycling effort that decommissioned hundreds of thousands of old terminals that were still in use in France until 2012. I would argue that of all the items shown in the slideshow, the Minitel was the most successful: it offered something for a set of specific users all the way up to the end of its lifecycle.
I also think the quietest, most egregious e-waste problem is Apple’s move from the 30-pin adapter to Lightning. While it’s clearly not Apple’s fault that their phone got popular, the number of unusable accessories has to be staggering. Additionally, the number of upgraders who don’t want their old and busted (but perfectly usable) iPod docks lying around anymore should also give us pause. Our thirst for technology is covering us over like horse manure in New York. My only hope is that something comes along at the last minute to solve this issue. Given the degree to which it’s swept under the rug, however, I doubt that very much.
Take a look at the slideshow here and maybe, just maybe, sit out the next upgrade cycle.
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