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.
Well, that’s true, and if copper prices rise substantially then people will dig them out. This always does happen too – it’s why the Hunt Brothers couldn’t corner the silver market. They tried, prices rose and the household stashes came flooding out to the refiners.
But this?
The study found that unused electrical goods could contain as much as £266m worth of copper. Scott Butler, from Recycle Your Electricals, which produced the study, called on the public to start recycling their unwanted electrical goods.
The group is now urging everyone to check its “recycling locator” for their nearest facility.
Congratulations to the PR bod there then. That’s £50k of free advertising gained by feeding The Guardian a story. Well done that man, vry well done.
Current number of bird choppers in the (via wiki…..) = over 11,000.
Amount of copper in a 3.6mW turbine = 29 tonnes.
38,500 tonnes divided by 29 = 1327*.
So increasing the number of turbines by a little over 30% will be sufficient for us to reach our goal of a de-carbonised electricity grid within the next 6 years is it?
I have a sneaking suspicion that there isn’t going to be as much electricity about as they are hoping, meaning perhaps, that buying shares in a candle factory may be a good idea.
*Don’t forget we will have to connect all these things up to the grid too…..
It’s very easy to “Recycle Your Electricals”, and because it’s easy people do.
There used to be a big skip at my local tip, but some years back they swapped to using one of the massive containers they use for other recycling. It seems to fill up quite quickly so people clearly are recycling. Whether it’s profitable even when the consumer devotes their time and transportation and gives it away for free is another matter.
aren’t they phasing out copper in the telephone grid in the near future?
If only there was a highly mobile to the point of nomadic group, prepared to work at night, very responsive to market forces, to extract that all for free? They could also help with transitioning us from lead roofs and flashings to more environmental options.
Looks up current unpeeled/”dirty” copper price… (cables, chargers, print boards, y’know….)
Hmmm… yeah…. How about “Nope!”
When figures are bandied about, I always like to divide by population.
So, taking that £266m as Gospel, the average Brit is sitting on an unrealised copper bonanza of £3.80.
So, meh.
So, meh.
But getting people to supply the materials input for your industry for free is a neat wheeze.
Every so often there appears a rather flaky news story speculating that the value of the copper cables owned by BT is more than the market cap of the company…..
https://www.theregister.com/2011/09/22/bt_copper_cable_theft/
I did a similar calculation to CJ Nerd. On the basis of 28.4m households in UK that is £9.37 per household and that is on the recovered value.
I will wait until the rush dies down.
Addolff
The bloke for the Liberal candidate here in Queensland rang me up chasing my vote for the 26 Oct election. I naturally pointed out my selfish objections to the Greens’ policies.
Entertainingly, he pointed out that the Libs policy here in Qld is not to build more windmills or pumped hydro storage or even nukes, but just to keep the coal burners well maintained and running indefinitely. I was startled enough to admit that this was the first sensible climate change policy I’d ever heard of.
But of course the Green bloke who represents my electorate wouldn’t have got my vote anyway.
Those few pounds per house of copper are surrounded by plastic, tinned with lead (in the older stuff) and hence it will cost a lot of energy and effort to separate the copper from the dross.
You are then left with a huge pile of toxic waste and heavy metals you will need to pay a fortune to dispose off. The council will never grant permission.
Both red tape and economics make this cloud cuckoo land.
And yes, BT (and others) are removing copper from telephones. This means that in the mass power cuts to come, no one will be able to bother the 999 services and waste their time with emergencies. Don’t expect to use your mobikle either: it may have a battery, but the cell mast doesn’t.
@ Tim the Coder – There are some very sophisticated machines now available to shred insulated insulated cable, and separate the plastic from the copper. Here’s just one company I found with a Google search: https://www.eldan-recycling.com/cable-recycling/
In a previous life I did this by hand – using scrap collected from my place of work (with permission, I might add). I further separated any “tinnings” (i.e. soldered/plated connections or tinned wire) from plain copper. After occasional visits to the local scrap yard it made quite a profitable sideline, and I shut up the accusations of “Steptoe” when I told them I was making twice the hourly rate they were!
“It may have a battery, but the cell mast doesn’t”
They do, but not sufficient for long duration autonomy in the event of major power outages…
Speaking as one who has actually scrapped copper wire and cable for fun and profit, I am very sceptical of these numbers. They suggest that every single household in the UK contains about 1.25 kg of copper contained in unused electrical devices.
That’s a lot of copper. For example, it’s equivalent to about 500 feet of 16-gauge copper wire, the usual gauge of power cords and suchlike. A phone charger doesn’t contain more than 100 grams of copper. How full are your kitchen drawers, FGS? And that doesn’t even consider the costs of recovery, which others have already addressed very fully. A lot of the copper contained in such sources is not recoverable in any practical or lawful way anywhere but in the Far East.
llater,
llamas
@Dave Ward
What Eldan is offering is cable stripping equipment. How much cable do people have in their homes apart from the house wiring? Trivial I’d imagine. Most of the copper etc is going to be in transformers & small circuit boards thoroughly embedded in lots of plastic & ferrous bits & pieces
@llamas
I expect my house runs at well above 1 1/2 pounds of copper. The motors in the half dozen ceiling fans, the washer, dryer, refrigerator, freezer, vacuum and heat pump probably contain quite a bit. Much more of you have any powered shop equipment.
@Mohave Greenie – well, of course it does. As, indeed, does mine – just the welders . . . . . – and every other modern home. Copper is the nerve fibre of modern life.
But these jamokes were referring to un-used and un-needed devices and wiring – old phone chargers, dead toasters and the like. Not the motor in your refrigerator.
llater,
llamas