It might sound unbelievable, but your smartphone is like having a miniature goldmine right in your pocket. What do we mean by this? The average smartphone is estimated to contain small traces of gold and other precious metals.
A BBC News story in 2014 revealed that a pile of 35-40 smartphones could yield as much as one gram of gold alone. It might not sound like much, but it just goes to show how much hidden value is right under your nose. Read on to learn more about how the Japanese used this information to recycle gold with great success.
Japanese gold recycled into medals.
In less than a year’s time, Japan will be hosting the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. For a number of years, the Japanese government has led an innovative campaign to persuade millions of Japanese citizens to hand in unwanted electronic devices. The campaign doubles as a bid to not only save the environment, but to help make sure the 2020 Tokyo Olympics can offer a whole host of shiny gold, silver and bronze medals.
Between April 2017 and March 2019, as many as six million smartphones and other electronic items were recycled, to produce 5,000 Olympic medals. Just think – all that scrap gold could have easily ended up remaining locked away in millions of homes across the country or lying in a landfill site.
This story highlights just how much gold can end up in everyday items, in the most unlikely of places. But don’t be fooled – if we stopped extracting gold from beneath the earth, and relied solely on the recycled gold from recycled electronic items, it’s estimated that we’d run out of gold within just 23 days.
Great value in recycling scrap gold.
What can we learn from the Japanese about recycling scrap gold? You might be interested to know that here at Cash for Your Gold, we can guarantee that any item of scrap gold you sell to us can be melted down, if you wish. Perhaps you’ve found an old family heirloom, but don’t like the idea of it simply being passed around from person to person.
When selling your scrap gold, why not ask for it to be completely melted down and reshaped into something new? Cash For Your Gold is able to offer as much as £13.27 for just a gram of 9-carat gold, and we accept a variety of items, whether that’s old jewellery, coins or bullion bars, just to name a few forms of scrap gold.
Use our Hallmarks guide, to help determine the purity or carat of your item. If you feel ready to make a sale of scrap gold, feel free to get in touch today – we look forward to helping you with any queries you may have.