So Who Is Flushing Money Down The Toilet?

[mawnansmiff]

Reading an article about 'the power of poo' on the BBC News website today and selected these excerpts for your consideration ::
"Previous research suggested the [fecal] waste from one million Americans could contain as much as $13m worth of metals per year"
"In the meantime, there's always poo mining. Brave US researchers last year identified gold in waste from American sewage treatment plants at levels which, if found in rock, would be considered worth mining. The researchers also found silver, and rare elements including palladium and vanadium."
"Arizona State University estimated that a city of one million inhabitants flushed about $13m (£8.7m) worth of precious metals down toilets and sewer drains each year."
This leaves me pondering on what you folks actually eat :nana:
Regards,
Jay.

 

[rhoadsie]

I guess I'm the number 2 poster on this thread. :rofl:

 

[mayfair70]

I start my day off with frosted gold flakes. Midday snack of old silver dollars. Evening meal of antique vanadium/steel wrenches and an arc reactor for dessert. Thanks for asking.

 

[aldecaker]

Where I live, there is a more than generous amount of uranium in the groundwater. We probably concentrate enough of that to make poo mining feasible.

 

[rhoadsie]

Was the title of the article "How to win at playing craps"? :rofl:

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Now, more than ever, we have more and more people going into jewelry as a hobby, especially in Arizona, where they see Native Americans getting good returns on their silver and gold work. A novice jewelry hobbyist will solder and use a pickling solution to dissolve the flux, which strips off layers of gold and silver. Then these morons flush it down the toilet, because they don't know enough about how to reclaim the metals. The hobbyist have expanded to the point that most jewelers are finding it easier to make money off of giving half-assed lessons to these sheep than to actually sell their work. They are big business now.

If one goes to one of the many many prolific arts and craft festivals in any city across the US, you will find twenty jewelers to every painter, and they are flushing money down the toilet, day in and day out.

 

[derfatdutchman]

So that old adage "I was crapping silver nickels" has some truth in it.

 

[mso489]

Digestive and urinary tracts are notable collectors of materials. The pharmaceuticals that end up in the commodes are an array of everything. Opioids, anti-depressants, antibiotics, and as the ads say "much more!" If they could filter out the precious metals from waste water they could lower taxes a little. Most larger communities, as I understand now, essentially re-cycle wastewater as drinking water. Time to change the filters in my water pitchers.

 

[sthbkr77]

Goldschlager and licking lamp-posts? Guilty.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Here is the article in its entirety...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37981485
Interesting to note it comes under 'business' :rofl:
Regards,
Jay.

 

[alexnorth]

Perhaps a new field for the fracking industry?

 

[agnosticpipe]

I know that some of the silver used in traditional photographic film and paper is washed away during processing. (down the drain) There is reclamation equipment made for the large volume processors to reclaim the silver that would usually be washed away.

Me, I never thought of drinking that water though, although at times I wished I had a cast iron stomach. :roll:

 

[mawnansmiff]

Interestingly Orley, I believe the photographic industry consumes more silver than any other industry outright. At least that was correct afore digital photography became the norm.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[mackeson]

So should I start jarring my poo and taking it to one of those "We buy gold" places every week or so. Think I'd get anything for it?

 

[shutterbugg]

The only thing of monetary worth I've flushed down the toilet in recent memory was the contents of a tin of Peterson's Hyde Park, and I don't regret it one bit.

 

[woodsroad]

and as the ads say "much more!"

Quote Of The Day

 

[pagan]

I should send my boxers to one of those gold buying places, I would cash in on the the skid marks

 

[pappymac]

The photography industry at one time did consume a lot of silver but that was back in the days when photography used black and white film and developers. Now it's all digital cameras and photoshop. It's sad because while you can create a lot of interest effects on a computer, it took a real artist to do it with film.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I know that some of the silver used in traditional photographic film and paper is washed away during processing.

The photography industry at one time...

People still do traditional B&W techniques, just as people still use blacksmithing and ceramics... Hobbyist, but that can be a trigger word for some, ha ha.
Oooo, this reminds me of a local news bit on the increase of silver in the water supply because of how criminals were using nitric acid in tubs in the back of a van to dissolve stolen silver and gold to prevent them from getting caught with the stolen merchandise. I called in to tell them that as a jeweler who uses acids to etch metals, that gold will not dissolve in nitric and that to dissolve something like a silver fork would take over a week, and constant refreshing of the acid would have to take place. Even using pure nitric, it would take a long time to dissolve a single silver coin. They pretty much told me that they were interested in facts, ha ha. It's not like someone could just drop an armload of silverware into a tub and dissolve it instantly while you drive away. Then reclaiming that metal... I have done it myself, but I'd rather have cats lick my eyeballs.
But, silver polish pastes, pickle compounds used by hobby jewelry makers, (women soldering jumprings closed, etc...) photography, hobby circuit board makers, there are lots of ways we just flush money down the toilet. I spend a majority of my time fixing rings that women have over-used polishing liquids and compounds on. They don't realize how much metal they strip off of their rings with each use. And, I'm sure most of that gets poured down a drain or flushed on paper towels.

 

[huntertrw]

"This leaves me pondering on what you folks actually eat..."
The answer, at least for some, appears to be the following: