Urban mining

The stuff around us is full of scarce metals and raw materials. Urban mining is seen as the way to reclaim and use these metals. But is this not just a trendy term for recycling?

Gold

Copper, lead, nickel, zinc, silver, gold and platinum. In the coming decades we will need more and more of these, and many other metals - huge amounts of metal are required for the development of windmills and solar cells. At the same time, an acute metal shortage is likely to occur in Europe. Our continent hardly has its own metal mines and many foreign mines are being depleted. Since a few years, however, people realize that there is much more metal around us than you see at first glance: hidden in the waste produced by our cities. In abandoned buildings, discarded computers, refrigerators, i-pads, electric cars, smartphones - there is more gold in a kilo cell phone than in a kilo of gold.

Waag.org

In the Netherlands, around 35 million kilos of small appliances, full of precious metal, are now being lost each year in incinerators. However, this number is becoming less and less thanks to the rapid rise of urban mining, the 'mining' of metal from urban waste. This city mining would be the way to secure our metal supplies and, according to specialists, urban mining of rare metals, such as europium and terbium, will become even more important than regular extraction in the coming decades. The Netherlands is now the leader in Europe in the area of city mines. In urban mining you can think of large 'mines', such as in construction, but also in small mines. In the Netherlands, for example, there are currently more than three million forgotten mobile phones at the bottom of drawers and cupboards. Anyone can therefore hit the city mines: at many different companies you can hand in your mobile phone for a fee now. These phones are disassembled and the metal can be reused.

Thinking different

See urban mining as a way of 'thinking around', of looking at things differently. If you start calling things differently, a process of awareness will often start automatically.

For example the demolition of (parts of) buildings is of all times. Because buildings are dated, no longer meet the current requirements or simply because a different interpretation is needed at that location. Urban Mining companys creates value from the waste streams that are released during this process. They can therefore use raw materials well. In their view, terms like 'demolish' and 'waste' do not exist, they speak about 'dismantling' and 'raw materials'. They see no scrap wood, but new window frames, dormer windows, tables and floors.

In the same way, the term urban mining, instead of 'recycling metal', can help us to see the value of our waste as well. Because as long as we do not see this value, we keep throwing things away. While the old telephones, refrigerators, cars and buildings that we see as superfluous, just are a 'raw material depot'.

Kuyer.nl