Chris Rodinis
January 31th, 2013
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671723/a-safe-and-easy-way-to-mine-metals-from-e-waste
This is post is about something old becoming new again. Old inventions that last for centuries like the wheel or the broom or Kronenbourg Beer last long because they stay useful or relevant.
Another factor of longevity is the quality of simplicity. Older things or ways tend to be more simple than modern ones.
What could be more simple than panning for gold? Load the pan with a hand full of stream-bed sand and pebbles, swish, and voila….you are collecting gold!
So by looking back at old technology, a London designer, Hall Watts invented a low tech low cost machine that recycles copper wire without incineration and is thus completely safe for humans and the environment.
Copper wire that comes specifically from e-waste which also happens to be the fastest growing form of waste. There are TONS of old copper wire existing in the world today. Everybody and his brother is into recycling copper because of the value and abundance. There are even thieves that specialize in stealing used copper!
E-waste savvy businessmen especially strive to collect very large quantities of it, then sell it at a handsome profit, and then finally ship to places like Ghana for “recycling.” The only problem is that the Ghanas have been burning the polymer casing around the wire to get to the copper.
Burning for the Bucks
Burning polymer-rubber-plastic off of wires is highly toxic to people and creates a hazard out of the local atmosphere. Emerging countries like Ghana need the work but what is the point if workers have to take a serious hit in the personal health department? Burning polymers in the open air stinks! Incinerating plastic in the open air seriously endangers everyone and mother nature too.
Here is a fact: ‘Much of the electronics we throw away–computers, phones, televisions–gets illegally dumped in poverty-stricken countries like Ghana and Nigeria, which lack the infrastructure to recycle the parts efficiently.”
“Instead, they are stripped down by hand, and some pieces are haphazardly set ablaze to extract the valuable metals within, exposing workers to harmful toxins.”
Low Cost Low Tech
Consequently, a low tech low cost solution to working around illegal incineration deserves big props because of the health and economic benefit.
Just one single activity, burning copper wire, creates income and if done haphazardly, creates illness and seriously bad pollution. That is a serious no-no. A crime even.
Enter “Esource.” Esource can really save the day for these e-waste workers in developing countries.
The features of the Esource are a hopper with a shredder / grinder that feeds a water pan separation process, all powered by the elevated rear wheel of a bicycle. The benefit is cleaner compliant recycling with a 2% greater copper yield than incineration!
“A lot of these people depend on burning cables as their primary income, but it’s the most health-damaging [e-waste] issue,” says Watts, who was recently nominated for design of the year by the Design Museum in London. “
(The irony of the Ghanan copper trade is that most of it is imported illegally and then exported back to Europe at a rate of about 8 million tons per year.)
Safer Simple Solutions
Looking at the reuserecycle.org daily blog picture one can see the simplicity of the design. The bike. The rear wheel elevated. The hopper sits above the back wheel. A hose for pumping water into the swirling separating trough below. It is recycling punk.
The bike rests on a stand that elevates it enough to pedal without the wheel hitting the ground; the hopper above the wheel is loaded with pieces of copper wire, these pieces drop into the grinder-shredder which is powered by pedaling.
The shredded bits fall into spiral bin that has water pumped into it; again powered by pedaling. At that point the copper separates from the plastic (while spinning in a mini vortex), and because of density differences, glides separately into the center of the pan and then is isolated below.
This process is exactly similar to the old time gold miners technique known as “panning for gold’” which nowadays is mostly just a novelty. Yet, an old simple technique was the inspiration for an important modern invention that saves the health of workers and is cleaner for the environment.
Lesson learned. Look to the past for cheap design ideas that are useful in the present.
For more information on computer or e-waste recycling please visit:
www.EwasteWiz.com