Throwing away gold

[wonky123]

I use Aviva Accu-chek test strips. In my area these are supplied on prescription. I test every morning. I noticed that they have shiny gold looking contact points on the end of each strip. After a bit of research I discover that this is in fact real gold.

And yet I chuck it away every day.

If I had to buy the strips on Amazon they would cost me the best part of 50p each - no doubt partly because of the gold they use.

Between us all we must chuck away a fair bit of gold over the year. Remember Blue Peter and sending in your milk bottle tops and how that funded guide dogs for the blind?

I have an idea. If I cut off the end of my test strips and start saving the golden ends and all of you do the same thing then each of us in 12 months will have 365 or more strips of gold. Perhaps Diabetes UK would like to accept them as a funding source?

Or the money might be returned to the NHS which paid for a lot of them anyway and is, I believe, a bit short of the readies partly through looking after us lot.

What do you say?

 

[urbanracer]

I use Aviva Accu-chek test strips. In my area these are supplied on prescription. I test every morning. I noticed that they have shiny gold looking contact points on the end of each strip. After a bit of research I discover that this is in fact real gold.

And yet I chuck it away every day.

If I had to buy the strips on Amazon they would cost me the best part of 50p each - no doubt partly because of the gold they use.

Between us all we must chuck away a fair bit of gold over the year. Remember Blue Peter and sending in your milk bottle tops and how that funded guide dogs for the blind?

I have an idea. If I cut off the bloody end of my test strips and start saving the golden ends and all of you do the same thing then each of us in 12 months will have 365 or more strips of gold. Perhaps Diabetes UK would like to accept them as a funding source?

Or the money might be returned to the NHS which paid for a lot of them anyway and is, I believe, a bit short of the readies partly through looking after us lot.

What do you say?

I say I like your thinking!

But in practice, if it is gold it will only be gold plated (a few microns thick) which is common with a lot of electrical connections these days. And it will thus be extremely difficult if not imposible to reclaim for any real commercial value.

In contrast, when copper was trading at over £7k/tonne a pre-1992 2p piece actually had a scrap value of 7p!

 

[Robbity]

And so probably cost much more to reclaim than the actual value of the gold you'd end up with? Unfortunately. But a nice idea though...

Robbity

 

[urbanracer]

Just looking at my glucomen lx test strips and they also have a gold appearance but if you hold them up to the light you can actually see through them so that's an indication of how thin the coating is.

 

[copepod]

Collecting aluminium cans is worthwhile. I save any I drink, plus pick up ones discarded in places like parks, bus stops and footpaths. When I have at least 8kg, I take to a scrap metal dealer and get up to 60p per kg, depending on world prices.

 

[eddie1968]

Cha-Ching ! Could be a nice little earner with the price of gold over a thousand dollars an ounce. Interesting - makes me think lol !

 

[Robbity]

Collecting aluminium cans is worthwhile. I save any I drink, plus pick up ones discarded in places like parks, bus stops and footpaths. When I have at least 8kg, I take to a scrap metal dealer and get up to 60p per kg, depending on world prices.

Yes we used to have collection points with can crushers for them at work.
Robbity

 

[lizdeluz]

@copepod, this cleans up the environment too, so you deserve any payment you can get for this service! When I see rubbish being chucked out of cars as they speed by, I wonder what is going on in the heads of the driver and his/her passengers!

 

[eddie1968]

I use Aviva Accu-chek test strips. In my area these are supplied on prescription. I test every morning. I noticed that they have shiny gold looking contact points on the end of each strip. After a bit of research I discover that this is in fact real gold.

And yet I chuck it away every day.

If I had to buy the strips on Amazon they would cost me the best part of 50p each - no doubt partly because of the gold they use.

Between us all we must chuck away a fair bit of gold over the year. Remember Blue Peter and sending in your milk bottle tops and how that funded guide dogs for the blind?

I have an idea. If I cut off the end of my test strips and start saving the golden ends and all of you do the same thing then each of us in 12 months will have 365 or more strips of gold. Perhaps Diabetes UK would like to accept them as a funding source?

Or the money might be returned to the NHS which paid for a lot of them anyway and is, I believe, a bit short of the readies partly through looking after us lot.

What do you say?

I have pulled the Aviva strips I have used apart and there is a lot more gold than you think...maybe I can get an ingot out of years of recycling them lol