México prepara estrategia nacional para reducir emisiones de mercurio

wikipedia.org

Las autoridades ambientales mexicanas buscan ponerse a tono con el Convenio de Minamata, que entró en vigor esta semana.

México anunció que diseñará una estrategia para cumplir con el Convenio de Minamata, cuyo objetivo es reducir las emisiones de mercurio, un metal pesado que provoca graves daños a la salud humana y el medio ambiente.

El gobierno de Enrique Peña Nieto prepara un diagnóstico de la situación nacional sobre el mercurio, a raíz de la entrada en vigor este miércoles del Convenio de Minamata, ratificado por el país latinoamericano.

"A finales del presente año se tendrá lista una estrategia para atender este problema", informó la Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Semarnat) en uncomunicado.

Los efectos dañinos de este metal para la salud humana fueron identificados en los años 50 tras la catástrofe de la Bahía de Minamata (Japón), ocasionada por unafábrica de productos químicos que arrojó al agua metilmercurio, un compuesto altamente tóxico, reportó el portal 20 Minutos.

La Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) ha determinado que "la exposición a ese metal pesado ocasiona daños cerebrales y neurológicos, principalmente a los jóvenes". A ello se agregan efectos nocivos en pulmones, riñones, sistema nervioso, digestivo e inmunológico.

Inside The World's Top Copper Nations - ValueWalk

I’ve talked a lot lately about the rise of Peru. With this week’s apparent approval of the new Quellaveco mega-mine being the latest addition to output here.

The emergence of new Peruvian mining projects is big news for the global copper market. Because there’s been a lot of question lately about where supply growth globally might be coming from.

As the chart below shows, Peru is a big part of the answer. Of the world’s top copper-producing nations, Peru is the only one showing significant yearly production growth over the last five years.

Peru is the only one among the world’s top copper-producing nations to show sustained and significant growth over the last five years (source: U.S. Geological Survey)

Between 2012 and 2016, Peru’s copper production jumped 77% to 2,300 tonnes per year. Putting it solidly into second place in global output.

During the same period, other big copper nations struggled. Top producer Chile was flat, as were #3 and #5 China and Australia.

Number-four copper producer America has managed to steadily grow production each year since 2012. But the scope has been small — with U.S. producers upping output by 20.5% or 240 tonnes per year. Not even a quarter of the supply growth Peru has seen.

But there is one other nation that was having a good run the past half-decade: Africa’s top copper producer, Democratic Republic of Congo.

As the chart above shows, DR Congo saw a big growth spurt between 2012 and 2014 — when copper production jumped 430 tonnes, or 72%.

But then, producers hit the wall. Output in 2015 was flat, before falling to 910 tonnes in 2016 as copper prices declined.

The big reason DR Congo stalled is electricity. This is a massive country — the 11th largest in the world by area — but has one of the lowest rates of national electricity availability.

Look at some numbers. Nationwide, only 9% of DR Congo’s population has access to electricity. Even in urban centers, the electrification rate is just 19% — dropping to 1% in the countryside.

The government here has tried to allocate power to the copper mining sector. But there just isn’t enough to go around — only about half of the nation’s 2,500 MW of installed generating capacity (almost entirely hydropower) is functional.

Nationwide the power shortfall is estimated at 750 MW. With the mining sector alone short about 300 MW.

That lack of power has almost completely frozen new mine development. Which is why this week’s power import deal with South Africa is so critical — if more electricity does arrive, things could be de-bottlenecked enough to get new operations up and running.

That would be very significant for global copper supply. Potentially allowing DR Congo’s output to resume the upward trend it enjoyed during 2012 to 2014.

In fact, the country might be one of the only places with big growth potential outside of Peru.

There’s no shortage of in-ground copper resources in DR Congo — unlike the U.S. and Australia, where big, new discoveries are hard to come by (although developments like in-situ leaching in Arizona could change that).

The country is also largely free of the regulatory problems and social opposition that have plagued Latin American copper nations. It has its own challenges to be sure — but the government has shown willingness to move developments along, unlike spots like Chile where lawmakers are getting more restive.

Even Peru’s future is uncertain. Anglo American walked away from the Michiquillay project a few weeks ago, saying government terms were too steep. And big copper mines in the country like Las Bambas have seen significant protests from local communities the past year.

DR Congo’s power problems aren’t easy to solve. Even the term sheet signed this week with South Africa’s Eskom still has a way to go — with lingering doubts over the Congolese ability to pay bills being a potential stumbling block.

But if an import deal can get done, it opens up one of the clearest paths to copper supply growth anywhere in the world. That’s a key development to watch for all market players, including project developers.

Huge Decline In Peru's Silver Production Suggests Future Supply At Risk

The Peru Ministry of Energy and Mining just released their silver production data for February, and it was a whopper to the downside. Actually, I was quite surprised to see how much the country's silver production declined versus the same month last year. Also, Peru's gold production in February took a similar big hit.

According to the ministry data, the country's silver production fell 12% to 323.1 metric tons (mt) this February versus 367.4 mt the same month last year:

This is a 44 mt decline in one month, nearly 1.5 million oz lost. Here is the table from the Peru Ministry of Energy and Mining showing various metals production data for February:

Silver is shown as "PLATA," and as we see, overall silver production for January-February has declined 6.7% compared to the same period last year. Which means, Peru's silver production took a much larger hit in February than in January.Furthermore, the country's gold production (shown as "ORO") also declined significantly by falling 11.3% in February.

The Peru Ministry of Energy and Mining put out this brief explanation why their silver and gold production declined in February:

However, in this month precious metals slightly suffered a lower production volume gold decreased by -11.91%, while silver -11.29%. In the accumulated January, national production of these precious metals decreased by 6.81% for gold and 6.3% for silver.

In the national production of silver, the Lima region (127,157 kg fine), Ancash (126,816 kg fine) and Junín (116,473 kg fine) regions are in the top positions, associated with the polymetallic exploitation of the center of the country. Peru is the second largest silver producer in the world and boasts the largest proven and probable reserves of this precious metal in the world.

Antamina (101,824 kg Fine) in the Ancash region, followed by Uchucchacua (84,745 Kg. Finos) in Lima and Inmaculada (30,468 Kg Finos) in Ayacucho, among several others.

In the case of gold, the national production accumulated to February 2017, reached 23.8 tons fine. Its production was concentrated in the regions of La Libertad (6.4 tons) contributing the total production in 26.92%; Cajamarca cooperating with 23.32% (5.5 tons fine) and Arequipa (3.03 tons fine) contributing 12.74%. These regions accumulate 63% of the national gold production.

The decrease is explained by the lower results (-23.53%) of the main producer: Minera Yanacocha S.R.L. Whose operations in Cajamarca have been affected by an exhaustion of the reserves in the current deposits in operation.

I don't know why the ministry's data for gold and silver production declines are different in their explanation than what they show in the Excel spreadsheets. However, it is only off by a small percentage. Regardless, the important part of the text above is highlighted in red. The reason for the big decline of Peru's gold production was due to "an exhaustion of reserves in the current deposits of operation." This is a key factor that will be played out across the world as other mines lose production due to the same situation of reserve exhaustion.

We must remember, Peru is the second largest silver producer in the world, right behind Mexico. According to the Silver Institute's 2016 Interim Report, Mexico's silver production is estimated to decline to 183 Moz in 2016 (189 Moz in 2015), while Peru's silver production increased to 141 Moz (136 Moz in 2015).

Global Future Silver Production At Risk

As the global markets finally succumb to the massive amount of debt, economic activity is going to plummet. This will have a negative impact on most energy, metals and commodity prices. Thus, production of base metals will decline significantly. This will impact the production of silver the most, as the majority comes as a by-product of zinc, lead and copper production.

According to the World Silver Survey, 34% of silver production came as a by-product of zinc and lead mine supply, while 22% came as a by-product of copper production. Thus, 56% of global silver production is a result of copper, zinc and lead production:

Which means more than half of the world's future silver production is at risk when base metals prices take a big hit during the next economic crash. People need to realize that using a massive amount of leveraged debt to continue economic activity is not only unwise, it is seriously insane.

While there is no guarantee what the value of gold and silver will be in the future, logic suggests investors holding onto moststocks, bonds and real estate will suffer the financial enema of their life. Again, this is all due to the disintegrating U.S. and global oil industry in the future.

So, place ya bets and let's see who made the better investment decision when the global market finally cracks.

Germany supports e-waste disposal in Ghana

The German government has unveiled a plan to help Ghana deal with electronic waste at Agbogbloshie, a major dumping site outside of the capital, Accra. The project aims to protect both workers and the environment.

Young men busy themselves extracting copper from the dumped electronics and other scrap materials so they can resell what the collect. With bare hands, they burn the electronics, which causes a thick black smoke. Though this is a necessity for their business, the smoke makes it difficult for people nearby to breathe.

Agbogbloshie is the hub of electronic waste (e-waste) in West Africa and most of the electronics dumped at the site are hazardous. The site is notorious for the dangerous manner in which electronic waste is collected and burned. The practice pollutes not only the atmosphere but also nearby bodies of water and is dangerous for the workers.

The processing of e-waste pollutes the environment and poisons workers

The German government announced this week a 20 million euro ($21.5 million) project it says will transform the electronic waste processing system in Accra. It calls for the building of an e-waste recycling facility where materials can be brought and sold and processed safely to the benefit of the local community. The plan was presented at a public event by the German Ambassador to Ghana, Christoph Retzlaff.

"The second component [of the plan] is a health station in Agbogbloshie to support people living there," he added.

Global and local problem

The UN Environment Program (UNEP) reported in 2015 that 60 to 90 percent of the world's electronic waste is illegally dumped. In 2014, an estimated 42 million tons of e-waste were generated. But according to UNEP, 85 percent of the e-waste dumped in Ghana and other parts of West Africa is produced in Ghana and West Africa. 

The local group City Waste Management is already excited about the initiative and is positioning itself to make the best out of the project.

"We are grateful that the German embassy here in Ghana has come on board to do this with the Ghanaian private sector. We are looking forward to working with them," said Wendy Ahiayibor, a representative of the company

Australian e-waste ending up in toxic African dump, torn apart by children

A computer monitor from St George Bank, destined for recycling in Australia, has been found on a toxic e-waste dump in west Africa, being pulled apart by children as young as five.

At Agbobbloshi dump, in Ghana's capital, Accra, children tear apart e-waste from western nations with their hands, and burn circuit boards over open fires to melt out the precious metals.

Broken or redundant computers are considered hazardous waste and are illegal to ship out of Australia — so the discovery of the bank monitor raises serious questions about the integrity and regulation of Australia's growing e-waste problem.

St George Bank, wholly owned by Westpac, claims gold standard environmental stewardship.

It says it followed the "right processes to ensure the St George Bank monitor was despatched" to their recycling partner.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.

Ghanaian environmental reporter, Mike Anane, on assignment for RN's Background Briefing, discovered the broken monitor during a routine visit to check on the health and welfare of children working at Agbobbloshie dump, considered the worst dump in the world.

"Over 500 container loads of electronic waste are coming from these developed countries, including Australia, every single month," said Mr Anane, speaking from Accra.

"Lately there is so much coming from Australia. I see about three container loads of electronic waste coming from Australia every single month.

"It is not just immoral, it is criminal to ship these things here."

Australia is one of the biggest consumers of electronics in the world, buying millions of items a year, which translates into almost 600,000 tonnes of e-waste annually.

The St George Bank monitor is part of that growing pile.

Background Briefing showed a video of a 13-year-old boy on the Agbobbloshie dump holding the bank's monitor to Don Quinn, operations manager at WorkVentures, which has the contract for Westpac's 15,000 e-waste items every year.

Mr Quinn said he did not believe the monitor passed through WorkVentures.

But when asked to confirm this by checking back through their asset register, the company advised by email a week later that the monitor had indeed been put through their system as e-waste in 2012.

"We looked up the sticker number on the monitor from the video you showed us and found we picked it up from St George Bank and decommissioned it in May 2012," the email said.

Because the monitor was deemed broken and not able to be fixed, it was sent on to another recycler.

WorkVentures is a not-for-profit group that refurbishes computers and sells them to the disadvantaged and community groups at discounted prices.

Items that cannot be repaired are disposed of through other recyclers.

From what the ABC can tell, the monitor made its way from one of these other recyclers to Ghana.

Neither WorkVentures nor Westpac would agree to further interviews about the integrity of their e-waste disposal chain, or how the monitor ended up on the Agbobbloshie dump.

WorkVentures declined to identify the third-party Australian recycler they used, but said they severed that relationship in 2012 because their documentation was not up to standard.

WorkVentures also declined to say if there were other monitors and computers in the batch that found its way to Ghana.

Westpac said in an email: "We can't speculate on how the monitor ended up in Ghana five years after we dispatched it, however it is of great concern to us.

"We are determined to work with WorkVentures and our suppliers to understand how this has happened."

Westpac is not alone in losing control of its hazardous e-waste.

Mr Anane says the lack of regulatory oversight is one of the reasons Australian e-waste is ending up on dumps in Africa.

He has been warning western nations for years about the temptation for recyclers to avoid costly, legitimate disposal of what they collect.

Indeed, it seems very easy to find third-party recyclers who are prepared to illegally export hazardous e-waste from Australia.

Background Briefing made contact with an e-waste dealer in the Middle East who offered $500 per 1,000 kilograms of broken and smashed computers.

A major Australian national e-waste recycler, Geordie Gill, confirmed he was regularly contacted by rogue dealers hungry for his e-waste.

"On a fortnightly basis we will get emails from offshore and basically it comes down to: 'I will buy your e-waste from you'," Mr Gill said.

"The majority of the emails come from Africa and we've been offered up to $20,000 per shipping container of e-waste."

When asked if he believed there were Australian operators selling to these dealers Mr Gill said: "The opportunity is there. I would have to say yes."

Background Briefing is not asserting that Westpac or their recyclers sent the broken St George Bank monitor to Ghana, but its appearance at Agbobbloshi dump reveals a lack of oversight.

Mr Anane tells us the health problems suffered by the children exposed to e-waste are life-threatening.

"Each time I go to the dump ... I see the children with all these open sores, I see them with skin diseases," he said.

"They tell me, 'We cannot run, I have a problem with my heart, my heart beats faster, I cannot play football, I have headaches all the time.'

"It's obvious that these children will not live to see their 20th birthday. A lot of the kids disappear from the dumps and it's obvious what happens to them."

At PDAC Peru will introduce new mining promotion policy to attract investment - International Mining

Peru's Minister of Energy and Mines, Gonzalo Tamayo Flores, leads the Peruvian delegation of more than 200 representatives from public and private sectors to the PDAC. During this event, the head of the sector will introduce a new direction for the mining promotion policy promoted by the current government of Peru, which intends to reactivate foreign investment in the development of exploration projects. The geological potential and competitive advantages of Peru in comparison with other countries will also be displayed.

"The new government's challenge is to increase competitiveness of mining investment in Peru through a new approach that will allow simplification of administrative procedures, reduction of social conflict and implementation of development projects in the areas of influence of the mining sites", highlighted Flores.

Peru is the world's second producer of copper, zinc and silver. In Latin America, Peru is the first producer of gold, zinc, lead and molybdenum. It also has the world's largest silver reserves and leads the Latin American ranking of gold, silver, zinc and molybdenum reserves.

"These figures reflect the wealth of our resources, the Peruvian mining production capacity and the stability of our economic policies", emphasized the Minister of Energy and Mines.

Among Peru's competitive advantages of investing in the Peruvian mining sector that the delegation aims to highlight are the low exploration and operating costs, macroeconomic stability, the innovation level of local suppliers and the efforts made by the Peruvian government in promoting a convergence among the production sectors, the communities and the mining industry.

Another important factor is the Peruvian economic model, which offers a regulatory framework that establishes equal treatment to investors regardless of their origin, as well as opportunities in every productive and service activity, within a free market policy.

As part of the PDAC Convention 2017, the 'Peru Day' will take place on Monday 6 MArch. It will be an entire day dedicated to introduce diverse aspects of the Peruvian mining industry and its investment opportunities as well as to meet national entrepreneurs.

On Tuesday 7, the 'CEO & Investors Luncheon' will take place, which is an opportunity to join more than 130 top executives from mining companies and investment firms interested in investing in the Peruvian mining industry. The Peruvian Head of the Ministers' Office, Fernando Zavala Lombardi, will attend this event.

During the four-day event, Peru will have an official pavilion offering official updated and useful information for investors, which will be distributed by the Ministry of Energy and Mines. The inauguration of this pavilion will take place on Sunday 5th with the presence of the Minister of Energy and Mines.

Samsung and Greenpeace: what you need to know about e-waste

At the smartphone world’s annual shindig in Barcelona, there are some things the tech giants have been trying to get people talking about – the relaunch of the Nokia 3310, BlackBerry’s new fingerprint scanner, Samsung’s virtual reality headset.

But there’s another, less glamorous story that they haven’t been so keen to promote. And that concerns the fate of their gadgets when consumers have finished with them.

On Sunday, Greenpeace interrupted a Samsung press conference to protest the company’s failure to produce a recycling plan for the defective Galaxy Note 7, recalled last year due to fire risk. The campaign group claims Samsung has 4.3m handsets to get rid of.

A Samsung spokesperson has since said the company is working “to ensure a responsible disposal plan” for its defunct phones, and prioritising safety and environment. But if the piled up Galaxy Note 7s go the same way as the rest of our old smartphones, computers and tablets, where might they end up?

Sending e-waste offshore

Since the start of 2017, we have thrown out more than 6.4m tonnes of electronic goods, according to The World Counts, a website keeping a live tally of global e-waste. If past patterns are any judge, not much of this will get properly recycled: less than a sixth of the e-waste discarded around the world in 2014 was dealt with in this way, says the UN.

Even in developed countries with advanced infrastructure, electronics recycling rates are low. The US recycled just 29% (pdf) of the 3.4m tonnes of e-waste it produced in 2012, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, while the rest was sent to landfill or incinerated.

“Our recycling rates for electronics are abysmal,” says Jim Puckett, executive director and founder of the Basel Action Network (BAN), an NGO. He estimates that 5% of metals used in electronics are recycled, at most.

When products are handed over for recycling, a portion end up in informal recycling hotspots in developing countries, such as Accra in Ghana or parts of southern China, where they are broken down in an uncontrolled environment, Puckett explains. UN figures suggest up to 90% of the world’s e-waste is illegally dumped.

“We sweep everything to developing countries where they have the least infrastructure and efficient recycling,” says Puckett.

In a recent experiment, BAN placed GPS trackers on 205 old printers and monitors to see what happened to them. Of the devices handed over for recycling, 40% were sent offshore, mostly to Asia. BAN’s team followed 37 of them to Hong Kong, where it found workers breaking down electronics by hand in informal junkyards.

This kind of unregulated processing of e-waste carries severe consequences for environment and human health, including air pollution when circuit boards are heated to access the metals, soil pollution as chemicals seep into the earth, and water pollution as toxic materials get into groundwater and other supplies.

Lost value

Recycling failures also lead to a waste of precious materials, like gold, copper and platinum. This not only means that fresh supplies are mined unnecessarily, but also that money is wasted through missed recycling opportunities. Potential revenues from e-waste recycling in the European market in 2014 were as high as 2bn euros, estimates Sheffield University’s centre for energy, environment and sustainability.

Companies including Microsoft and Dell have sought to address their e-waste footprint by partnering with third-party organisations like Goodwill, which sells or recycles donated electronics. Last year Apple unveiled a recycling robot called Liam, who it says can take apart an iPhone in 11 seconds.

More recent ideas have included a mobile phone offset scheme, launched on Tuesday by recycling company Sims Recycling Solutions and Dutch social enterprise Closing the Loop. They promise to remove one phone from an e-waste dump for every phone used by the scheme’s customers, including ING Bank.

Puckett believes more systemic change is needed, however. When it comes to tackling the sheer quantity of discarded electronics, he says progress will only come via market-based incentives for longer-lasting electronics. A system where electronics are leased out rather than bought and sold, for example, would incentivise companies to make products last as long as possible, he says.

Waste silicon sawdust recycled into anode for lithium-ion battery

February 21, 2017

Researchers have created a high performance anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) using waste silicon (Si) sawdust.

It is energy-consuming and expensive to produce Si wafers with high purity (> 99.99%). On top of that, some 50% of Si is actually discarded as industrial waste in the final cutting process. This waste is about 90 thousand tons a year worldwide, an amount large enough to meet the global demands for anodematerials for LIBs.

To make this happen, under the project of "Dynamic Alliance for Open Innovation Bridging Human, Environment and Materials," a joint research team from Tohoku University and Osaka University has developed a practical and mass-producible method of recycling the unwanted Si sawdust into a high-performance anode material for LIBs.

The team found that the pulverization of the Si sawdust into Si nanoflakes (~16 nm in thickness) and the subsequent carbon coating are effective in fabricating high capacity and durable LIBs. So far, a test half-cell has achieved a constant capacity of 1200 mAh/g over 800 cycles. This capacity is 3.3 times as large as that of conventional graphite (ca. 360 mAh/g).

The proposed method of material recycling is applicable for the mass production of high-performance LIB anode materials at a reasonably low cost. The research team expects that it will have great practical use in the battery industry.

Legislation aims to legalize mobile recycling centers in SF

Mobile recycling centers would become legal in San Francisco under legislation introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener on Thursday.

Senate Bill 458 would allow mobile recycling centers to operate under a pilot program that's meant to relieve small businesses from having to accept recycling for redemption. Wiener said such businesses were especially burdened by having to redeem recycling efforts from customers after the closure of various San Francisco recycling centers in recent years.

"With our ambitious zero waste goals, San Francisco has long been a national leader in recycling and waste reduction efforts," Wiener said in a statement. “Yet, our dense urban environment has evolved over the decades since the Bottle Bill was passed, and we need to be more flexible in finding solutions to maximize our recycling efforts.

He added, "Mobile recycling will allow us to continue to promote smart and effective recycling policies, while relieving a burden on our business owners, particularly our small mom-and-pop corner stores that don't have the capacity or resources to meet the one-size-fits-all obligations of state law."

The legislation, he noted, is meant to alleviate that burden from small businesses.

Under what's known as the "Bottle Bill," the 1986 California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, any beverage dealer, including supermarkets and corner stores, that aren't within a half-mile of a recycling center must redeem empty bottles and cans in-store or pay an in-lieu fee of $100-per-day.

There are currently seven recycling centers in San Francisco, compared to 35 in 1990.

What to do with aging gadgets

I don't like looking at the three bins in my basement that are overflowing with old electronics, much less touching them. So let me make one thing clear: Do as I say, not as I do.

Make a plan to sell, donate or recycle your old electronics now. Consumer Reports points out that electronics don't age well. If you want to get some money out of them, the younger the better. Middle-aged machines can be donated, but ancient ones should be recycled.

Sell it

I plunged my hand into those dusty bins and pulled out five items I thought might be worth something. Then I checked out several sites that buy used electronics.

First I typed in my husband's two old BlackBerrys. Worthless. I was skeptical that our ancient GPS device would be a moneymaker, but then one website offered me between 25 cents and $17 for it, depending on the condition.

Next, I submitted a two-year-old Nikon CoolPix camera and learned two valuable lessons: First, refurbishers want electronics less than three years old. Second, be sure to shop around. One site offered me $15 for the camera, but another offered me $44.

Finally, I entered a Bose bluetooth speaker, unused, in the original box, and hit the jackpot - $67 for a speaker that would go for about $100 new.

Here are several resources for selling used electronics:

• Amazon.com: Amazon buys a wide variety of electronics, plus CDs and video games. In my brief experiment, I found its offers to be among the highest. You're paid via Amazon gift card.

• Best Buy: Best Buy's estimating tool is quick and easy, and with 1,500 stores across North America, you can easily drop off your trade-in rather than messing with shipping.

• BuyBackWorld: This site buys cellphones, tablets, laptops, cameras and more. If you accept the site's offer, it will send you a label for free shipping.

• Gazelle: Gazelle focuses mostly on Apple products. A nice benefit here: You can choose to be paid via Amazon gift card, PayPal or check.

• Target: The big-box store has partnered with an outfit called NextWorth. You can get an easy estimate online, then choose whether to ship your item for free or take it to a participating Target store.

Donate it

Many charities make use of slightly outdated but still-functioning gadgets. Make sure you wipe phones and clear the hard drive on computers before donating them.

Here are several organizations that accept electronics donations:

• American Cell Phone Drive: This organization donates all types of used cellphones - or the proceeds - to local charities, and you can even choose which charity your donation benefits. Just put your phone in a local drop-off box or get a shipping label online.

• Dell Reconnect: This partnership between Dell and Goodwill accepts all brands of computers, plus computer accessories in any condition. If they're usable, Goodwill finds people who need them. If not, Dell recycles them.

• eBay for Charity: Here you actually sell your used electronics, then donate the proceeds to a charity of your choice.

Recycle it

Indiana law prohibits the disposal of electronics in the trash. In Allen County, you can recycle old electronics at OmniSource, 1430 Meyer Road, at a cost of $5 for up to five items per trip. Televisions under 46 inches cost $10 to recycle and televisions over 47 inches cost $20 to recycle. To see what is accepted, go to www.acwastewatcher.org/recycle/electronics-recycling.

• Best Buy: The store also offers recycling options for almost any kind of device with an on button. There are kiosks near store doors for small items, and you can take larger things to the customer service desk.

• Call2Recycle: Here's the answer for rechargeable batteries and cellphones. Type in your ZIP code on the website to find a drop-off location near you.

• TIA E-cycling Central: The Telecommunications Industry Association offers a map where you can click on your state and get a listing of recycling opportunities near you, including those offered by local cities and towns.

The Continent That Contributes The Most To E-Waste Is...

While the world becomes more wired through laptops, tablets and mobile phones, a mountain of electronic waste — or e-waste — is also growing. The greatest contributor to that stock of e-waste is Asia, according to a report published last week from United Nations University.

The report, which studied 12 East and Southeast Asian countries, says the amount of electronic waste in Asia has risen 63 percent in the last five years. A significant proportion of that waste is likely helping to grow an international black market for recycling, says Ruediger Kuehr, the lead author on the report and head of the Sustainable Cycles program at the United Nations University.

Asia is the highest overall producer, though the per capita production of e-waste is highest in the United States, Europe and Oceania. The Americas produced about 26 pounds per inhabitant in 2014. By comparison, Asia produced 8.1 pounds per inhabitant and Africa 3.74 pounds.

An e-waste recycling factory in Guiyu, China.

The expanding Asian middle class is driving e-waste, as is a growing electronics market filled with new gadgets, says Ahsan Shamim, an environmental scientist at the Metropolitan State University of Denver who was not involved with the report. "There is a growing middle class in all those [Asian] countries," he says. "You can see it particularly in mobile phones. The cellphone has grown tremendously in an uncontrollable way."

And new electronic devices, which the report classifies as anything with a cord or a battery, expire far quicker than their predecessors. Gadgets just don't last as long as they used to, as a German environmental agency report found — and many people upgrade within a year or two.

By far, the greatest increase in annual e-waste has been from China, which has seen about a 100-percent rise in the last five years to 6.681 million metric tons.

Some of the e-waste in Asia, particularly in China and Hong Kong, is still being illegally shipped in from around the world, says Kuehr. He says research he conducted found these imports account for "only about 10 to 20 percent" of the total e-waste. But an estimate by MIT showed imports from North American to be more like 20 to 30 percent of e-waste, according to Kuehr.

Kuehr estimates Asia generates about 16 million metric tons of e-waste each year, including imports from elsewhere. (The U.S. produces about 10 million.)

At a "backyard" recycling operation just outside of Jakarta, men place circuit boards in an oven and fire them to smelt out gold and other precious metals.

All these defunct electronics may be feeding a vast, shadowy recycling market. Certain electronic goods like printed circuit boards contain valuable metals like gold and copper. Large and costly industrial processes can recover precious metals with relatively little damage to human health and the environment, but most countries don't have the infrastructure to do that. "The [safe] treatment of these hazardous components is limited to only a handful of sites on the globe. These sites are not in the developing world," Kuehr says.

In the U.S., consumers can take their e-waste to appropriate drop spots. A collection company or municipality then takes it to a facility that will strip everything for parts. Items containing precious metals like circuit boards are shipped to special facilities that can strip gold, palladium and other metals on an industrial scale and with safety precautions.

But people across East and Southeast Asia are extracting those metals as well, with a disregard for formal health and environmental safety procedures.

"What they are doing is very crude methods, mostly," Kuehr says. "They are taking the [circuit boards] and bathing them in an acid bath to get gold or other precious metals and releasing the acid into the water or environment."

Another common procedure is to collect cables and burn the plastic casing away on an open flame to collect copper, Kuehr says. "Many people doing this realize [the danger]," he says. "They have red eyes, headaches, kidney issues, etc. But they are making their living out of it."

Toxins released from this type of processing can cause cancer — and brain, kidney, lung and liver damage. "It turns into this catastrophic thing," Shamim says.

Some of these operations appear to be small-scale recyclers or what Kuehr calls "backyard operations."

Jim Puckett, the executive director of the Basel Action Network, a watchdog organization focusing on hazardous waste, says he recently came across one in Indonesia.

"I did see a very dirty operation outside of Jakarta. Someone was inside their apartment cooking circuitry and extracting gold," he says. "They were breathing this stuff in a closed environment. You go in and immediately get a headache."

Bigger hubs for illegal e-waste processing exist in Hong Kong, Puckett says. His organization has tracked hundreds of electronics across the globe to unregulated plants in Hong Kong and the New Territories of Hong Kong.

But this could change if Hong Kong and mainland China institute stricter regulations on electronics recycling, Puckett and Shamim say.

These larger recycling operations were initially propped up by shipments from places like the EU and the United States — in violation of U.N. conventions for trading hazardous materials, says Puckett.

And now a sizable stream of e-waste is coming in locally.

"That informal sector will be happy to gobble up the domestic waste," Puckett says. And there are no signs that the amount of e-waste or the unregulated market for e-waste recycling is abating any time soon.

Indeed, the search is on for "countries — like Bangladesh, like Myanmar, like Indonesia — where they have the cheapest labor and [weak] regulations," Shamim says.

.

E-Waste Recyclers Discuss Future Trends at International Electronics Recycling Congress

Today it is estimated 15 billion things are digitally connected with one another and experts predict an increase to 50 billion devices in the IoT (Internet of Things) sphere by the year 2020. These things include not only computers, tablets and smartphones, but also wearables, consumer electronics and the vehicles we use. However, although this trend offers consumers far greater convenience, it can present recycling companies with a range of difficulties, a fact that was clearly underlined at this year's International Electronics Recycling Congress IERC 2017 in Salzburg.

When designing our products we already take into account reparability and recyclability, explained Jonathan Perry, Producer Responsibility Compliance Consultant at computer manufacturer Dell, at the IERC on January 18.

"The batteries of our laptops are easily removable and we use recycled plastics from recycled electronics in our housing parts, effectively closing the materials loop," Perry said. "Our experts are looking at future design as well as recycling technologies to ensure that our products remain highly recyclable."

But there are other materials, that are causing headaches for recyclers. "Apart from the increasingly complex materials, composites of mixed materials, the known legacy heavy metals and halogenated flame retardants, new additives are also beginning to emerge, such as nanoparticles, presenting recycling enterprises with new challenges," emphasised Dr Mike Biddle, Managing Director of cleantech fund Evok Innovations and Founder and Director of recycler MBA Polymers.

Little research has been done into some of these newest materials with respect to how they behave in traditional recycling processes, he said. It is possible that some of these new materials and additives may also present new dangers with respect to environmental protection and industrial health and safety if not handled with care, particularly during shredding or other size reduction processing. Furthermore, it's often not easy or even possible for the recycler to know which products have additives that might need special handling as these additives are sometimes kept secret as proprietary.

From a commercial standpoint, too, the years to come are also likely to remain challenging. As Dr Biddle explained, partly responsible are three trends that are actually "good for the planet". Firstly, there is downsizing, i.e. making electronic devices smaller and smaller. Secondly, life extension, which means the turnover cycles of many devices are beginning to lengthen. And thirdly, there is a certain general trend towards a sharing economy.

"Particularly in major cities, the idea of sharing is becoming more and more popular," said Biddle. Not every home needs all of the power tools and appliances they have that they perhaps use only a few times a year. Although the sharing economy is a good idea, it definitely also has a downside for e-waste recyclers, as it reduces the number of new devices that need to be produced and therefore also the volume of end-of-life devices that need to be disposed of.

Hence, recyclers again need to position themselves to remain competitive going forward. Above all, they need to make strategic choices in terms of cost savings, innovation, specialisation and internationalisation, stated Norbert Zonneveld, Executive Secretary of the European Electronics Recyclers Association (EERA). "The solution for each type of e-waste treatment operation will be different. Some recyclers are already working on future-proof business models, but there is still a great deal of uncertainty."

The uncertainty is caused by the differences in implementation of the WEEE regulations across Europe and the difficulties with enforcement, said Zonneveld. "This limits the scope of future-proof business models."

Another area of concern is the emergence of two parallel worlds. One of the policy makers that aim for a sustainable society with new ideas and the other of operators who experience not enough support in improving the obligations of existing legislation and where it is difficult to make the best efforts for necessary change.

"The two worlds must come together in order to create stability and mobilise financial resources for making the necessary innovations", stated Zonneveld. "If we do not succeed the race to the bottom will continue where the credibility of regulations is undermined. It is not a new future-business model for recyclers only that is needed, but a holistic improved business model for all stakeholders involved i.e. consumers, producers, take-back systems and recyclers supported by solid harmonized regulations that are enforced. That is what circular economy is about."

The example of Christian Müller-Guttenbrunn shows that e-waste recycling enterprises can still be successful on the market, despite these adverse factors. The Austrian is managing partner and CEO of Müller-Guttenbrunn GmbH. At this year's IERC he was presented with the IERC Honorary Award, which is given at the IERC each year to especially deserving figures from the recycling sector.

"Christian has won this award for his life's work, for the development of new recycling processes and the founding of new cleantech companies in Austria and Eastern Europe in various fields, such as plastics recycling and metal sorting," explained the Steering Committee of the IERC 2017 when presenting Christian Müller-Guttenbrunn with the award. The award also honours the innovative team at the Müller-Guttenbrunn Group, which was largely responsible for introducing new technologies for extracting pollutants from e-waste and upgrading recycling plastics for industrial use.

Gold eases a touch from 2-month high as dollar steadies

Gold prices pulled back only slightly early Wednesday from a finish on Tuesday at their highest level since mid-November as dollar sellers came up for air.

Gold for February delivery GCG7, -0.10% eased 60 cents, or 0.1%, to $1,212.30. The contract settled the previous session at $1,212.90 an ounce after trading as high as $1,218.90.

Silver for March delivery SIH7, -0.10% fell less than a cent, or 0.1%, to $17.14 an ounce.

The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.38% , which was hammered a day earlier following comments from President-elect Donald Trump, was trading up 0.4% Wednesday. Gold and the dollar typically move inversely since a richer greenback cuts demand for the dollar-priced metal from buyers using other currencies.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Friday, Trump said the dollar, which touched a more than 14-year high about two weeks ago, has gotten "too strong," as China keeps its own yuan weaker. He said the dollar's strength is impeding the competitiveness of U.S. companies.

Read:Trump is waving adios to the longstanding 'strong dollar policy'

Don't miss:Gold has a lot going for it this year - and it's not only because of Trump

"The newswires were quick to attribute the move to comments from [Trump], who said the greenback is 'too strong' ... In fact, it started some time earlier and seems to mark the return of 'Trump trade' unwinding as the dominant market theme after it had been briefly overshadowed by 'hard Brexit' fears at the start of the week," said Ilya Spivak, currency strategist with Daily FX. On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May said the U.K. would move ahead to vote on a clean cut with the European Union but hoped to negotiate trade deals.

Economic data and Federal Reserve chatter could keep financial markets busy ahead of the U.S. presidential inauguration on Friday.

On tap today: readings on consumer prices at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, and on industrial production and capacity utilization at 9:15 a.m. Eastern, all for December. The National Association of Homebuilders's housing market index for January follows at 10 a.m. Eastern, while the Fed's Beige Book is due at 2 p.m. Eastern.

The consumer prices report should be closely watched. Economists polled by MarketWatch are forecasting a monthly rise of 0.2% for core inflation and 0.3% for headline inflation.

"A similar upside surprise this time around may echo December's strong wage growth data, rekindling Fed rate-hike speculation and weighing on gold," said Spivak. Nonyielding gold tends to fall out of favor in a rising-rate climate.

Investors will also be watching a speech from Fed Chairwoman Yellen on the goals of monetary policy, due at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Ahead of that, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will make an economic-themed speech at 11 a.m. Eastern.

In ETF trading, the SPDR Gold Trust GLD, +1.44% rose 1.4% premarket, the iShares Silver Trust SLV, +2.13% added 2% and the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF GDX, +2.73% gained 2.7%.

Gold Becomes Overbought; What To Do Now?

Gold is seriously challenging the crucial resistance zone of $1200-$1220.

Daily gold futures price chart show that it is overbought.

Should you be worried?

Gold (NYSEARCA: GLD) is seriously threatening to violate the resistance zone of $1200-$1220 with more than 1 percent in gains. At the time of writing this article, the yellow metal was trading at $1214.8 per ounce after having tested an intraday high of $1218.9.

Source: Novi.ba

In my last article on gold published on January 5 titled Gold Is About To Face Its First Major Test On The Rebound, I had discussed why I expected the precious metal to hit the resistance and eventually climb the hurdle. At that time, gold futures were at $1183 per ounce.

A significant contribution to the rally has come from the weakness in U.S. dollar (NYSEARCA: UUP). The greenback has corrected more than 3 percent from its recent high of 103.82.

Source: TradingView

Bulls are clearing the hurdles in front of them, one at a time. First, they crossed the 30-day SMA, then they conquered the 50-day SMA, and now they are aiming to take out the first crucial resistance. Beyond this zone of $1200-$1220, the precious metal should jump to $1250-$1260.

Source: TradingView

But, some investors are worried that Aurum has rallied too fast and is overbought. They are not incorrect; the 14-day RSI and the 14-day MFI values indicate that gold has indeed entered the overbought territory. But, this isn't a reason enough to sell, not at least for the long-term investors. The short-term traders can definitely consider booking some profits.

The long-term investors have nothing to be concerned about. Barring some minor profit-booking, gold should do well to cross over the resistance, failing which it risks falling once again to $1100 or so. The weekly gold futures price chart below clearly indicates that the yellow metal is rising after retesting the multi-year resistance trendline.

Source: TradingView

The fear of gold being overbought takes a strong beating when looking at the 14-week RSI and the 14-week MFI values of 47.6967 and 41.1337 respectively. Instead, these readings suggest that there is ample room to run in the coming weeks as well.

Gold is doing well to dislodge the bears as it crosses each resistance one-by-one. While stating this, it is hard not to be reminded of this famous quote from the legendary investor Warren Buffett,

I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

I am not expecting the positive mood to be spoiled anytime soon. The correction in the greenback may end in the near future as it also nears the oversold territory, but that would cause nothing more than minor pullbacks in gold.

So, long-term investors who got in near $1140 do not have to book profits now. Only the short-term traders should consider reducing their exposure.

Note: I cover several stocks in different sectors as well as S&P 500, crude oil, gold and silver, U.S. dollar, etc. So, if you liked this update, and would like to read more of such informative articles, please consider hitting the "Follow" button above. Thank you for reading!

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

The silver market performed reasonably well in 2016, with the price of the precious metal picking up more than $2 to close the year at $15.88 per ounce

The silver market performed reasonably well in 2016, with the price of the precious metal picking up more than $2 to close the year at $15.88 per ounce. That in turn helped boost the prospects for silver-tracking investments like the iShares Silver Trust (NYSEMKT:SLV). But as much as investors appreciated the gains, they were a far cry from the highs above $20 per ounce that silver posted earlier in the year. Looking forward to the coming year, investors want to see the price of silver in 2017 climb back toward the $20 mark, but those who follow the silver market aren't sure just how much progress the metal can make. Below, we'll look at what could move the price of silver in 2017.

Image source: Getty Images.

What will move silver prices in 2017?

The main difficulty that many people have in assessing the silver market is that it acts like a hybrid, showing characteristics of both precious and industrial metals. On one hand, even at prices that are less than 2% of the price of gold, silver is still roughly 100 times as costly as copper, putting silver in a gray area in the middle of the price spectrum. Historically, traders have seen silver as a precious metal, and many mines produce both gold and silver, further associating them in the minds of investors.

Yet in large part, silver is much more subject to supply and demand considerations than gold. Silver gets used in a wide variety of industrial applications, and that subjects it to the normal demand fluctuations of the global economic business cycle. In addition, mined supply of new silver plays a role in setting its price, along with the willingness of those who have stockpiled silver for investment or personal use to bring it back into the market when prices rise.

Even with those countervailing factors, silver traded largely in line with its precious metal counterparts during 2016. After a big gain linked to an early year stock market decline in 2016 and prospects for a potential collapse in the energy markets, silver climbed to its highest levels by mid-year. However, the final boost from the U.K. Brexit vote to leave the European Union didn't lead to the economic chaos that some had predicted. By the second half of the year, excitement about silver waned, and fears of higher interest rates sent silver prices down more than $4 per ounce from their highest levels of the year.

2017 price projections on silver (per ounce)

Citi Research

$15.50

HSBC

$18.75

ABN Amro

$15.40

UBS

$18.60

BMO

$17

Data source: Analyst projections via Kitco.

As you can see above, there are two distinct camps among those following the silver market. Some believe that better conditions in the market will lead to substantial gains, while others see the current malaise lasting throughout 2017.

The bullish argument for silver

Most of those who are bullish about silver prices in 2017 point to silver's capacity to decouple from the precious metals markets. In particular, excitement about silver's industrial demand could be the driver for higher prices in the minds of some.

Helping to support that view are the latest calls from President-elect Donald Trump for greater spending on infrastructure and construction. If the U.S. moves forward with initiatives that are successful in driving greater activity on those fronts, then the use of silver could increase. At the same time, many expect that silver mining activity will fall in 2017 from year-ago levels, continuing a longer-term trend. Even with prices having bounced from their lowest levels, they're still not high enough to make miners feel particularly enthusiastic about boosting production.

The bearish argument for silver

However, those who are negative on the prospects for silver prices in 2017 point out that the factors that traditionally hurt precious metals markets are poised to become stronger during the year. Late-year dollar strength in 2016 has typically pushed gold and silver prices lower. Moreover, with many expecting multiple interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve in 2017, the costs of holding positions in silver bullion are likely to rise from their rock-bottom levels of the past several years.

Also, the supply and demand factors that theoretically drive silver prices haven't always matched up in the short run. Supply deficits in production of mined silver have been regular occurrences for most of the past 15 years, but that hasn't prevented the silver market from having wild volatility swings over that time period.

What to expect from silver in 2017

Just about the only certainty with silver prices in 2017 is that they're likely to feature substantial moves in both directions, as investors try to figure out changes in geopolitical and macroeconomic factors affecting the market. That might stop the forward momentum that silver generated in 2016, but it could also create opportunities for those who have higher hopes for silver's prospects in the long run.

Levels of e-waste soar in Asia as gadgets become affordable, UN say

Levels of electronic waste are rising sharply across Asia as higher incomes mean hundreds of millions of people can afford smartphones and other gadgets, according to a UN study.

The amount of e-waste in Asia has risen by 63% in five years, a report by the United Nations University said, warning of the need to improve recycling and disposal methods across the region to prevent serious environmental and health consequences.

Ruediger Kuehr, the report’s co-author and the head of UNU’s sustainable cycles programme, said: “For many countries that already lack infrastructure for environmentally sound e-waste management, the increasing volumes are a cause for concern.”

For many years, China and other Asian countries have recycled discarded electronics from wealthier countries in rudimentary and often unsafe factories.

But the report said Asia has become a major source of e-waste due to increasingly affluent consumers buying electronic items including phones, tablets, refrigerators, computers and televisions.

China’s generation of e-waste more than doubled between 2010 and 2015, the period of the study, according to the report.

Hong Kong generated the highest amount of e-waste in Asia in 2015, an average of 21.7kg (3.4st) per person.

Singapore and Taiwan created just over 19kg per person in 2015.

Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines were among the lowest e-waste generators, with an average of about 1kg per person.