GoldPaq

Look around ? aside from jewelry, do you see any gold? Maybe not, but that doesn?t mean it isn?t there. Though it?s rarely visible to the naked eye, gold is contained in many of the electronics you use every day.

Gold is used in many solid state electronics, due to the fact that many of these electronics are extremely vulnerable to corrosion, which can cause these electronics to malfunction. Gold is an excellent conductor that does not corrode, making electronics much more reliable.

While gold?s use in electronics is understandable and useful, unfortunately, many electronics that use gold are not recycled. This post-consumer gold is lost to the market, driving the price of mined gold even higher, while also wasting a valuable commodity. You may be surprised to discover how much gold you currently possess in electronics ? you?d be even more surprised to discover how useful this gold is.

Cell phones are one of the most popular electronics that contain gold. Gold, which is resistant to corrosion caused by normal moisture, ensures that cell phones continue to function well over the lifetime of device. An estimated fifty cents worth of gold goes into the production of every cell phone; this may not seem like much, but when you consider that millions of cell phones are manufactured every year, this quickly adds up to a considerable amount of gold.

However, the average cell phone is only used for approximately two years; after the two years is up, very few cell phones are recycled. This means that millions of dollars worth of gold is being lost in drawers, closets, and even landfills, while the expense of gold mining on both the gold market and the environment continues to grow.

By recycling your old cell phone with an online gold broker, you can help reduce the impact of gold use in cell phones. Fortunately, recycling your old cell phone is as easy as leaving it with your cell phone service provider when you upgrade to a new one. Cell phone service providers will recycle your phone free of charge, and, in some instances they will even give you a rebate on the new phone. PDAs, which like cell phones also contain gold, can also be recycled by your wireless service provider.

Like cell phones, both desktop and laptop computers are manufactured with small amounts of gold. As in cell phones, gold is used in the conductors within the computer?s electrical systems. Gold is also used in the edge connectors that are used to mount microprocessor and memory chips onto the motherboard, as well as in the plug-and-socket connectors used to attach cables.

Also like cell phones, very few computers are recycled, and millions more are produced every year. The gold that is contained in these computers is lost to the market, necessitating the continued mining of gold. However, also like cell phones, computers can be recycled; for information on how to recycle computers, see the Environmental Protection Agency?s website, which gives you details on recycling computers to reduce their impact on the environment.

While cell phones and computers are two of the biggest offenders, they are far from the only electronics that use and abuse valuable gold. Televisions, calculators, global positioning systems, and most other small electronics are also manufactured using gold. Unfortunately, they, too, are rarely recycled when they are no longer useful, and the gold contained within them is lost.

Recycling all electronics, whether they contain gold or not, is always a good idea. The valuable components in these products ? whether they be gold, base metal, or anything else ? can be reused, but instead are ending up in landfills or closets within your home, taking up space and wasting resources that could be reused. Recycling these items reduces the impact of manufacturing electronics on the environment.

Not only does recycling these consumer electronics impact the environment by keeping them out of the landfill, it also helps reduce the impact of gold mining on the environment. Gold is essential to the manufacture of many electronics because it is an excellent conductor that is resistant to the corrosion that causes these devices to malfunction; our increased dependence on these electronic devices means increased production of gold.

If we recycle these electronic items instead of sending them to the landfill, the gold they contain can be used, reducing the amount of gold that needs to be mined to manufacture electronic devices, and in turn reducing the harm that gold mining has on the environment. This also means that more post-consumer gold is available on the market, reducing the cost of gold to consumers.

The gold in your electronics may not be visible, but it?s valuable. Recycling it maximizes its value.

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