In Apple's annual environmental report in 2016, it revealed that it had recovered over 61 million pounds of metals and plastics - including 2,204lbs of gold. That's right, through the power of recycling, Apple recovered (the equivalent of) two polar bears worth of gold. More importantly, as of the time of this writing, the amount of gold that Apple found is worth $38,481,740.
Now, I'm not urging you to take your phone and laptop apart just yet - but it is worth diving into how the precious metals industry, the hardware industry, and environmental protection initiatives interact with each other. If you've never thought about those three industries at the same time before, you're not alone; I hadn't either.
In order to gain more insight, I called up my friend Jonathan Rose, the Founder of Capital Gold Group, as well as a Series 3 Commodities trader and one of a few distributors for the U.S. Mint. Here are his key insights for the future of how these three industries will interact in the next ten years:
The Financial Incentive To Recycle Grows
"The most obvious impact that we're going to see is an uptick in recycling as more machines that contain precious metals are discarded," explains Rose. "We're now entering an age of technology where tech has infiltrated everything around us. The automobile industry, for example, currently uses copious amounts of industrial metals in catalytic converters. In the near future, we're going to see more and more self-driving vehicles, which will require more of the precious metal."
It's not just consumer technology, either. As an increasing number of factories produce high precision equipment, or use automated equipment to work with precious metals, more valuable dust and scraps end up being discarded - and this is happening in every developed country. In Tokyo, Japan, a sewage treatment plant realized there was so much gold content in its sludge that it actively began collecting the dust from the incinerator. Once they began hunting for the gold aggressively, they soon found that they were "producing" more gold than the highest producing mine in the country.
The results are twofold. First, more consumers and professional hardware makers will be interested in recycling their devices and machinery, which means less will go into dumps. Second, we'll see a boom in the number of business ventures centered around finding and refining the discarded electronics in our landfills. We've already seen this trend begin, and we can only assume that it will become a major aspect of our global waste management system in the future.
"To secure a bright future for our children, grandchildren and future generations after them, what's good for the planet must also be good for your wallet," explains Rose. "Without even meaning to, the hardware and precious metals industries have made this a reality; they may have, accidentally, saved our planet by working together so closely."
It's not everyday you get to see the birth of a new way of life, though this disruption in waste management is still only a whisper amongst those in the know. However, the symbiotic relationship between the technology sector and precious metals is causing both to grow at a breakneck pace.
"The tech industry relies on the precious metals industry," explains Rose. "As the demand for industrial precious metals like gold and silver continues to soar, tech will need to factor in the cost of metal in their devices' retail value. However, the rising ubiquity of consumer technology and the pace of innovation, if it remains stable, will level the playing field, and allow both industries to grow steadily without causing prices to rise out of control."
The end result: fortunes of gold, silver, palladium, platinum and more, waiting for those willing to dig through the dump. What better motivator could you provide for getting not only small groups of ambitious prospectors, but big business involved in a global cleanup initiative?