Cash For Trash

Turns out that Japan is potentially one of the top five richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources. A study by the National Institute for Material Science in Tsukuba has found that Japan's landfill sites contain ass-loads, literally metric ass-loads, of gold, platinum and other precious metals within the circuitry of discarded electronics like old mobile phones. We're told that "Japan has unwittingly accumulated three times as much gold, silver and indium than the entire world uses or buys in a year" and that in terms of platinum they have six times global consumption. An article from The Times says all this, but longer, and with less italicisation: here.