techtalk

June 2006

Trash Yields Millions for Defense Department

Edited by Robert H. Williams

The Pentagon’s precious metals recovery program is salvaging significant quantities of gold, silver, platinum and palladium from old computers, sparkplugs, film, batteries and cast off electronics.

In fiscal year 2005 alone, more than $8 million on precious metals were reclaimed and during the past 30 years, $250 million has been recaptured.

A spokesman for the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service says the cooperative outreach to the military services and contractors not only is producing big bucks, but also is limiting the amount of waste in U.S. landfills.

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