The Royal Mint is building a plant to turn electronic waste into gold

The amount of e-waste created by our collective consumption is gargantuan — by 2030, the global total is likely to be 74.7 million metric tons. Most of that is currently offloaded to other countries; for a more sustainable approach, we need to start processing more discarded gadgets domestically.

As Sean Millard, Chief Growth Officer at The Royal Mint, explains: "We estimate that 99% of the UK's circuit boards are currently shipped overseas to be processed at high temperatures in smelters. As the volume of electronic waste increases each year, this problem is only set to become bigger. When fully operational our plant will be the first of its kind in the world — processing tons of electronic waste each week, and providing a new source of high quality gold direct to The Royal Mint."