Taking a different tack to much of the commenters:
We’re collectively sitting atop every piece of copper we’ve ever refined, they’re just sitting and rotting in landfills instead of mines.
If I were a gambling dinosaur, I’d wager that landfill mining in developed economies will be a decently-sized business in a few decades, as we seek to recapture minerals and materials we once felt were disposable - but whose easily-available raw amounts we’d gradually withered down via mining or extraction. Depending on how material science and metal valuation goes, it might become practical or necessary to extract those metals from water sources or industrial waste sites.
It ain’t pretty, but we were never going to be able to mine Earth indefinitely - and we’re already at a point where, as a planetary species, we need to be more organized and restrictive about the use of non-renewable resources for optimal outcomes and long device/product lifespans.
The era of disposability has passed, we just need more companies to swallow that bitter pill and start adapting.
Oh, I’m 100% with you that governments should be regulating the hell out of this in general. We’re at a place in evolution where we have the capability to exploit the entire planet’s resources and yet have no central planning or regulation authority ensuring we don’t screw ourselves in the process.
But until governments and their people acknowledge their role in dealing with the long term issues, we’re stuck with the infinite-growth perspective of Capital. Considering that’s where the accelerator is pushed down, we need to firmly rebuke and shame their yearly iteration nonsense and promote more sustainable outcomes.
We’re collectively sitting atop every piece of copper we’ve ever refined, they’re just sitting and rotting in landfills instead of mines.
If I were a gambling dinosaur, I’d wager that landfill mining in developed economies will be a decently-sized business in a few decades, as we seek to recapture minerals and materials we once felt were disposable - but whose easily-available raw amounts we’d gradually withered down via mining or extraction. Depending on how material science and metal valuation goes, it might become practical or necessary to extract those metals from water sources or industrial waste sites.
It ain’t pretty, but we were never going to be able to mine Earth indefinitely - and we’re already at a point where, as a planetary species, we need to be more organized and restrictive about the use of non-renewable resources for optimal outcomes and long device/product lifespans.
The era of disposability has passed, we just need more companies to swallow that bitter pill and start adapting.