Brits sitting on £1.6B gold mine of Windows 10 junk as support ends

Recyclers reckon millions of obsolete PCs could yield a small fortune in precious metals

There's gold in them thar piles of old Windows 10 PCs. Quite literally, according to recyclers.

Gold worth more than £1.6 billion could be recovered from UK devices obsoleted when Microsoft discontinues free support on October 14, according to Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) experts at Businesswaste.co.uk.

The eye-popping number comes from taking the UK's share of the global PC market and applying it to the current best guess of how many devices are unable to accept the Windows 11 upgrade, respectively corresponding to 3.6 percent and 400 million devices. This translates to 14.4 million obsolete PCs in the UK.

Then there is the question of device type: in this case, 70 percent laptops and 30 percent desktops, and respective weights of 1.5 and 12 kg.

Finally, there is the question of how much material can be recovered per ton. Businesswaste.co.uk used figures from E-Parisara, which give 190.5 kg of copper, 0.28 kg of gold, and 0.45 kg of silver.

Multiply it all together, stir in the respective current values of precious metals, and you get £1.6 billion for gold, as well as nearly £100 million for copper and £33 million for silver. All told, Businesswaste.co.uk estimates that almost £1.8 billion could be generated from the e-waste arising from Windows 10 machines that cannot be updated.

It isn't that simple, of course. The figures do not account for regional variations in Windows 11 readiness, nor do they consider that most affected enterprises will have factored Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESUs) into their planning.

Businesswaste.co.uk told The Register that it had indeed not factored ESUs into its calculations, but contended that the program is not intended as a long-term solution. "While some uptake of ESUs may stagger WEEE generation slightly, the overall scale of device turnover remains significant," a spokesperson said.

"While not exact, estimating based on the UK's share of global PCs offers a useful sense of the scale of devices nearing end of support and the resulting e-waste."

A pile of obsolete devices won't suddenly appear at recycling centers on October 15, but all those devices will have to be dealt with at some point. And their data will have to be destroyed or serious security issues could arise.

Stephen Haskew, director of sustainability and growth at Circular Computing, told The Register options are available to those with devices that cannot upgrade to Windows 11. ChromeOS Flex is one, although that would bring its own challenges. Alternatively, passing the redundant hardware on to a worthy cause, where charities can install a user-friendly Linux, is a reasonable choice.

"But certainly, what we want to avoid at all costs is that product entering an e-waste stream," he said. "E-waste is a hugely growing problem for the world."

Haskew believes that the majority of larger enterprises will have the problem under control and likely already have relationships with IT asset disposal (ITAD) contractors to handle obsolete devices. For smaller companies or individuals, the difficulties may lie in what to do with their old hardware once the Windows 10 ESUs come to an end.

"That's where the problem is a bottleneck," he said. "What happens to those assets?"

And if those devices do end up as landfill fodder, Haskew said there could indeed be billions of pounds worth of precious metals in the ground ready to be mined by future generations, "because we'll run out of stuff!" To be clear, however, redundant devices should not be tipped into a landfill.

"Microsoft is not the baddie here," he concluded. "They've given plenty of notice... That doesn't mean there's not an environmental hazard lurking, if not managed in the right way." ®