Cities Could Have Millions Of Dollars Buried In Their Sewage Sludge
- 9 years ago
American cities are sitting on top of literal gold mines.
American cities are sitting on top of literal gold mines.
Researchers recently calculated the value of metals trapped in sewage sludge and say that if there are a million people living in an area, odds are there’s a 13 million dollar fortune to be found in the city’s waste.
It’s not all gold. Among the 13 priciest elements found, there’s also a fair amount of titanium, silver, and copper.
The hidden treasures were discovered by a team from Arizona State University.
They collected treated sewage sludge from across the country and with the help of a mass spectrometer identified the types and quantities of the metallic particles within them.
Though the total value is high, the concentration of the precious bits is not.
Every ton of processed waste has slightly less than 300 dollars worth of inclusions.
It’s unclear how much it would cost to extract the full 13 million dollars in metals, but making the effort isn’t unh
American cities are sitting on top of literal gold mines.
Researchers recently calculated the value of metals trapped in sewage sludge and say that if there are a million people living in an area, odds are there’s a 13 million dollar fortune to be found in the city’s waste.
It’s not all gold. Among the 13 priciest elements found, there’s also a fair amount of titanium, silver, and copper.
The hidden treasures were discovered by a team from Arizona State University.
They collected treated sewage sludge from across the country and with the help of a mass spectrometer identified the types and quantities of the metallic particles within them.
Though the total value is high, the concentration of the precious bits is not.
Every ton of processed waste has slightly less than 300 dollars worth of inclusions.
It’s unclear how much it would cost to extract the full 13 million dollars in metals, but making the effort isn’t unh