From televisions to computers and mobile phones — millions of electronic devices are discarded each year, making it the fastest growing component of the municipal solid waste stream.
But while this digital waste piles up, could there be a possible opportunity for the mining industry at the bottom of your junk drawer?
With electronic waste volumes currently surging five times faster than documented e-waste recycling, as reported by United Nation’s Global E-waste Monitor, more mining and resources companies are advancing in the digital age and doing their part in the circular economy innovation.
In 2022 alone, the world generated a record 62 million tonnes of e-waste — a staggering 82% increase from 2010.
To visualise this, imagine over 1.5 million 40-tonne trucks in a bumper-to-bumper line encircling the equator, or over 30 Titanic cruise ships, each overflowing with discarded electronics. And within that mountain of waste? Billions of dollars worth of precious and critical minerals such as gold, copper, lithium, and rare earths.
Scrap-heap: Beating plastic pollution
Each year, World Environment Day (5 June) calls on the world to reconsider how the planet is being treated. For mining companies in particular, this is more than a call — it’s a strategic opportunity.
This year’s World Environment Day theme, “Beat Plastic Pollution,” may centre on single-use plastics, but it also nods towards a broader and less-visible crisis — e-waste — an issue where plastic, metals and technology collide.
In 2025, tackling plastic pollution means looking beyond bags, bottles, and straws and more toward the keyboards, cables, and circuit boards that are quietly piling up in household junk drawers.
E-waste often contains hazardous materials such as lead, cadmium, and beryllium. Once it is exposed to strong UV radiation or corrodes, other toxic materials can be released into the atmosphere. As a result, the soil can be infiltrated and flow into water bodies nearly, in turn, affecting public health.
Environmental advocate Earth Org says the damage this waste poses to human health and the environment “exceeds the destructive power of all other wastes combined”.
However, when properly collected and processed, this waste can be transformed into a source of raw materials critical for the clean energy transition.
“E-waste recycling has all sorts of benefits in addition to the protection of human health and the environment,” Earth Org says.
Waste not, want not
The concept of mining e-waste, once a niche environment endeavour, is now rapidly evolving into a mainstream industrial strategy.
Since 2024, as awareness of circular economy principles gained traction, miners have increasingly turned their attention to urban deposits as a viable supplement to traditional extraction.
As Mining.com.au previously reported, the circular economy, or circularity, refers to practices that optimise resource use and minimise waste across the entire production and consumption cycle, emphasising sustainability and economic efficiency.
Some companies are already innovating, for example, MTM Critical Metals (ASX:MTM) which is developing its Flash Joule Heating (FJH) technology. FJH uses the principle of electrical resistance to generate intense heat within materials almost instantaneously.
This news service on 14 May reported that MTM Critical Metals has secured a pre-permitted five-hectare industrial site for its Flash Joule Heating recovery plant.
The property is pre-permitted for industrial waste handling and processing, and includes existing infrastructure such as sealed access roads, onsite power, wastewater management, security fencing, and office facilities.
In September 2024, the company extracted roughly 48% of the copper content and 67% of silver from printed circuit boards, a common component of e-waste.
According to Fortune Business Insights 2024, printer circuit boards can contain up to 30% by weight of metals such as copper, zinc, tin, lead, iron, nickel, and precious metals.
Copper, for example, which is used in a wide range of electronic products including computers, has one of the hugest recycling rates compared to other metals. The World Economic Forum reports that between 2009 and 2018, global copper consumption averaged 26.7 million tonnes annually, with 32% of this coming from recycled sources.
The recycling rate remains around 56% of copper produced globally. However, this still means that nearly half of the copper produced is discarded rather than recycled.
Further, in 2022, the e-waste recycling market was valued at US$14.2 billion, with projections to reach over US$61 billion by 2032, growing at nearly 16% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). As such, this offers the mining and resources industry the opportunity to capitalise on this while also contributing significantly to the environment.
Late last year, the Gold Bullion Company revealed that the US has the highest amount of documented and recycled e-waste globally, recording twice as much as second place China.
As Mining.com.au previously reported, the Gold Bullion Company’s study assessed the total kilograms of documented recycled e-waste each country produced and found that while the US has the highest estimated gold worth from recycled e-waste at 13,767kg – twice as much as second place China with 6,630kg – Azerbaijan is sitting on the least estimated gold from recycled e-waste with 0.03kg.
Decluttering the future
Despite the importance being more recognised, the rate of circularity has actually fallen. According to the Circle Economy Foundation, the majority of extracted materials entering the global economy are virgin — the share of secondary materials has been declining steadily from 9.1% to 7.2% just five years later in 2023.
Between 2016 and 2021, the global economy consumed 582 billion tonnes of materials — which is nearly equivalent to the 740 billion tonnes consumed in the entire 20th century. But there is now an increasing awareness regarding the benefits e-waste has on the energy transition.
As the International Energy Agency (IEA) notes, recycling metals and minerals from end-of-life equipment and scrap could help satisfy primary supply reduction requirements in its net zero emissions by 2050 scenario.
According to the Nickel Institute, about 10 million tonnes of the 62 million tonnes of e-waste produced annually is recycled, leaving more than 80% of e-waste to be incinerated, landfilled, or shipped across borders — or simply left in homes and workplaces, and yes, junk drawers.
Organisations such as Australia e-Waste Recycling are working to change that. Australia Ewaste Recycling specialises in e-waste collection and comprehensive array of e-waste recycling and disposal solutions — providing solutions to various e-waste problems in select areas within the nation.
Some of the services the organisation offers include computer recycling, IT asset disposition services, and digital electronics product destructure.
The World Economic Forum has identified several ways to increase recycling rates that ensure electronic products, batteries, solar panels, and various plastic products are properly recycled at the end of their life cycles.
Firstly, taking a comprehensive approach to circularity such as product-as-a-service can reduce the strain on primary resources. The second is — advancing recycling technology, in which the quality and quantity of recycled materials can improve.
The World Economic Forum adds that creating supportive policies and encouraging multi-stakeholder and cross-industry collaboration can also increase recycling rates.
As such, the challenge is now scaling up infrastructure, creating economic incentives, and integrating mining expertise into the value chain of urban materials.
From metallurgy to logistics, mining companies have the tools. What may be needed is a shift in mindset — from more companies not only seeing the value in what is beneath the surface to recognising the untapped wealth already sitting above the ground.
This World Environment Day, one message rings especially clear: the real gold is no longer buried, it’s in your junk drawers.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au, Earth Org & IEA
