The Thinker
(IN PHOTO) Kindergarten children walk past an installation shaped like Auguste Rodin's "The thinker" sat on a toilet at the Toilet Culture Park in Suwon, about 46 km (29 miles) south of Seoul, November 22, 2012. The park, which is the only one of its type in the world, exhibits a variety of bowls from Korean traditional squat toilets to western bedpans. Reuters

Trace amounts of metals such as gold, silver and platinum are found in cosmetics, shampoos and clothes. Flakes of silver and gold are also found in food which are eventually excreted from the human body as faeces or poop.

Likewise, tiny metal particles are dislodged from cutlery and gold and silver medical diagnostic tolls as well as jewellery are accidentally flushed down the toilet and end up in sewerage tanks. An eight-year study by the US Geological Services found that the level of metals in faeces are comparable to those found in some commercial mines, reports the Telegraph.

In their estimates, mining from all faeces produced in Britain would yield waste metals worth around 510 million pounds yearly. As gross as the idea may appear, US scientists said that removing the metals from human waste not only provides lucrative income, it also means more safe uses of faeces as fertiliser.

According to estimates, UK produced in 1999 more than 1.13 million tonnes of sludge dry solids or an average of 20 kilogrammes per person. Meanwhile, another paper published in the Environmental Science & Technology journal estimates metals produced from a population of 1 million could yield $13 million worth a year, reports LiveScience. Using the proportion from that research, it would mean in the UK about 500 million pounds worth of precious metals could be collected annually from Brit faeces.

Other precious metals that also end up in sewerages include rare elements such as palladium and vanadium used for electronics and alloys. Based on the eight-year study’s sample collection made by the US Geological Service from small towns in the Rocky Mountains, on a monthly basis, one kilogramme of sludge would contain 0.4 milligrammes of golf, 28 milligrammes of silver, 638 milligrammes of copper and 49 milligrammes of vanadium.

The US Geological Service presented the study at the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au

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