Tracking Europe's waste - 'There's gold in them landfills'


FILE PHOTO - Used mobile phones without batteries lie together with printed circuit boards in a storage area at Solenthaler Recycling AG recycling company in Gossau, Switzerland July 4, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

OSLO (Reuters) - Some of Europe's richest deposits of valuable materials are in the trash, ranging from gold in smartphones to cobalt in electric car batteries, according to a survey of urban mining published on Wednesday.

Scrap vehicles, batteries, computers, fridges and other electronic and electrical waste total about 18 million tonnes a year and contain materials worth billions of dollars, the report said, urging more recycling.

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