Digital Waste Worth More Than Gold, Copper Ore

tcd004 writes "Imagine sheer mountains of discarded Pentium IIIs, tractor trailers overflowing with discarded wall warts. Photojournalist Natalie Behring visited Guiyu, China and documented the world's biggest digital dump where, for $2 per day, the locals sort, disassemble, and pulverize hundreds of tons of e-waste. The payoff is huge: computer waste contains 17 times more gold than gold ore, 40 times more copper than copper ore. But the detritus also leaches chemicals and metals into local water supplies."

Imagine a digital dump

[nmoog]

1s and 0s as far as the eye can see!

Environmentally irresponsibility

[nmoog]

If you say that it's environmentally irresponsibility to throw away computer equipment, your girlfriend can't get mad that you've got a cluster of Amiga2000s making your house look like a digital dump.

Re:Environmentally irresponsibility

[nmoog]

Oh cut and paste. My good friend and bitterly enemy.

Where have I heard this before?

[fahrbot-bot]

... the world's biggest digital dump ...

Bender, is that you?

Re:Where have I heard this before?

[revengebomber]

Hey! Melting down those broken robots is just wrong! Especially when they're sucking up to me like that!

Dang...

[EraseEraseMe]

...computer waste contains 17 times more gold than gold ore, 40 times more copper than copper ore...

I'm lucky if I get 4 Thorium ore from one mine :( I think I'm going to have to level up recycling.

Re:Imagine a digital dump

[Kris_J]

I think I saw a 2

For sale

[Mr2cents]

Ok, if anyone is interested, I have tons of used 1's and 0's in my basement. They're pre-sorted. I'm willing to sell them for 2 cents/kilobit.

The bits will be sent to you as a self-extracting executable.

Re:Imagine a digital dump

[digitig]

I always wondered what /dev/null actually looked like!

I'm such an addict

[vell0cet]

Did anyone else read the title and think it was about World of Warcraft?

Re:Environmentally irresponsibility

[QuickFox]

Girlfriends and Clusters of Amiga2000s are mutually exclusive.

I realize that by asking what this means I'll lose every single geek point I might have had, as I reveal my ignorance about some arcane technology that is undoubtedly known to every geek in the Universe except me, but still I have to ask: What's a Girlfriend?

Re:Thoughts on recycling

[Opportunist]

You are aware that you're talking about people who think the "future" is what they write in their quarter-year report or how they get reelected in up to 4 years, yes?

Re:Imagine a digital dump

[Anonymous Coward]

A digital dump? Yah, that'll happen if you don't get enough fiber.

Maybe...

[Mahjub Sa'aden]

Because there's so damn many of them?