A team of chemists has uncovered an astonishing new source of precious metal our food waste. The discovery could help clean up the environment, boost recycling, and even turn garbage into gold.
Researchers reporting through the American Chemical Society have found that food waste, including everyday scraps like coconut husks, radish greens, and beet pulp, naturally traps traces of gold and other valuable metals.
The study, featured on ScienceDaily, revealed that organic molecules in discarded plant matter can bind to metal ions a property that could be harnessed to recover gold from industrial wastewater, mining runoff, or even electronic waste streams.
What once went to the landfill might soon help power sustainable metal recovery.
The scientists analyzed how different agricultural byproducts interact with metal ions dissolved in water. They discovered that natural fibers and plant cell walls act as miniature chemical filters, binding precious metals such as gold, palladium, and platinum with remarkable efficiency.
Unlike synthetic filters, these biomaterials are biodegradable, abundant, and renewable making the process environmentally friendly and inexpensive.
“This approach could help reduce mining waste while repurposing food byproducts that are otherwise discarded,” the team explained. The process could also cut carbon emissions linked to traditional ore mining.
The findings offer a new angle on the global push toward a circular economy where waste from one sector becomes a resource for another. With billions of tons of food discarded every year, the potential for recovery is enormous.
Scientists are now exploring whether this same technique can be scaled up to extract metals from electronic waste, one of the fastest-growing forms of pollution worldwide.
Read the full article here.