Scottish scientists have developed a new method for recovering gold from old gadgets such as mobile phones, TV’s and computers, which not only doesn’t require the use of toxic chemicals, such as cyanide, but it is also said to be more effective than current techniques.

According to the researchers from the University of Edinburgh, who have just published their findings in the journal Angewandte Chemie, their extraction method could help recover about 300 tonnes of the precious metal used in electronics each year.

They estimate that electrical waste contains as much as 7% of all the world’s gold as the precious metal is a key component of the printed circuit boards found inside most modern devices.