Your old phone is a veritable gold mine

Honest question - how do I make sure my data is cleared from the electronics before I let them be recycled?

The most stunning fact in this video - recovering metals like gold from e-waste is now more efficient than digging it up from the Earth.

But it makes sense if the facts (1:40) are true. If a typical gold mine has 5-6 grams of gold per ton of Earth and a ton of mobile phones (typical e-waste) contains 350 grams, that's a brilliant source of gold.

Now we just have to find ways to get to the gold.

Notice the 'nothing you do to gold does anything to it (I'm paraphrasing, admittedly)' fact? That's because it's really low on the activity series. It's a noble metal.

Oh, and the fact that we haven't ratified the Basel Convention reminds us that the US is an awful global citizen. From wikipedia, "The 10 UN member states that are not party to the treaty are East Timor, Fiji, Grenada, Haiti, San Marino, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Tuvalu, United States, and Vanuatu."