Your ‘drawer of doom’ could save the planet, according to campaigners.
Unused cables and broken technological items we all still have at home could be recycled to provide much-needed copper to help de-carbonise the economy.
The metal is used to build wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles.
Analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence shows a growing gap between the amount of copper being produced and demand, with all the shallow, easy-to-extract copper deposits having been mined out.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Research by campaign group Recycle Your Electricals (RYE) suggests the UK has 1.3 billion unused or binned electricals, including 627 million cables, which could supply copper to meet the growing demand.
Cables contain 20 per cent copper, according to the Critical Minerals Association – and RYE says households across the UK are throwing away or holding on to an average of 23 cables.
It means UK homes are holding around £266m worth of copper, enough to provide 30 per cent of the copper needed in our green future, RYE says.
The group wants us all to take our old cables down to the recycling centre.
But hang on a moment. We’re holding stuff worth £266 million, and these people want us to just give it away?
If it’s worth that much, shouldn’t they be paying us for it?
The UK householder has been ripped off left, right and centre over the past few years. I’m wondering if it might be more worthwhile for us to hold on to this stuff until the price rises a lot more, and then ask the relevant companies what they’re willing to pay.
It might be about saving the planet, but somebody will be making a profit from it.
Why shouldn’t that be us?
Source: That box full of wires you’ve kept for years could help avert a looming crisis | UK News | Sky News
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Your ‘drawer of doom’ could save the planet – for a price?
Your ‘drawer of doom’ could save the planet, according to campaigners.
Unused cables and broken technological items we all still have at home could be recycled to provide much-needed copper to help de-carbonise the economy.
The metal is used to build wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles.
Analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence shows a growing gap between the amount of copper being produced and demand, with all the shallow, easy-to-extract copper deposits having been mined out.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Research by campaign group Recycle Your Electricals (RYE) suggests the UK has 1.3 billion unused or binned electricals, including 627 million cables, which could supply copper to meet the growing demand.
Cables contain 20 per cent copper, according to the Critical Minerals Association – and RYE says households across the UK are throwing away or holding on to an average of 23 cables.
It means UK homes are holding around £266m worth of copper, enough to provide 30 per cent of the copper needed in our green future, RYE says.
The group wants us all to take our old cables down to the recycling centre.
But hang on a moment. We’re holding stuff worth £266 million, and these people want us to just give it away?
If it’s worth that much, shouldn’t they be paying us for it?
The UK householder has been ripped off left, right and centre over the past few years. I’m wondering if it might be more worthwhile for us to hold on to this stuff until the price rises a lot more, and then ask the relevant companies what they’re willing to pay.
It might be about saving the planet, but somebody will be making a profit from it.
Why shouldn’t that be us?
Source: That box full of wires you’ve kept for years could help avert a looming crisis | UK News | Sky News
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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