Millions Worth of Gold and Silver Down the Drains?

Don’t look now, but there may be gold and silver lurking in your city’s sewers. Seriously. And according to the Smithsonian, not just a little bit either, but likely millions of dollars worth of the rare metals.

We recently stumbled across this story that was just too good to pass up. Apparently, Arizona State University researchers have calculated exactly how much gold, silver and other metals find their way into sewage sludge—the “goo” left behind after treating sewage.

For the study, samples of sludge were collected from sewers all over the U.S. and carefully tested for their metal content using a fancy scientific gadget called a “mass spectrometer.” The findings: A million person city typically produces about $13 million worth of metal in sludge annually, including $2.6 million in silver and gold.

Now if you’re wondering how that much metal could possibly end up down the drain, we’ll go ahead and tell you that it isn’t all from people accidentally losing their gold rings down the sink. Most of the metal that winds up in the sewage system is likely waste from mining, manufacturing, electronics and electroplating.

Although $2.6 million sounds like a lot to most people, the amount isn’t enough to make extracting the metals worth the hassle for U.S. sewage companies, nor is it economically feasible at the moment. However, the perspective on what to do with our waste is changing in America – close to 60% of sludge is now used to fertilize fields and forests.

But let’s be honest, who would want the job of sifting through piles and piles of sewage for a little bit of gold and silver? You’d be surprised. One treatment plant in Japan gathered “nearly 2 kilograms of gold in every metric ton of ash left from burning sludge, making it more gold-rich than the ore in many mines,” according to Science Magazine.

So who knows, give technology a couple years to advance and cities could be digging for gold and silver nuggets in their septic.

In the meantime, there’s a much easier, cleaner way to own precious metals without getting your hands dirty. Check out our gold buying guide to browse through our beautiful collection of pure bullion coins.

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