Question: when we run out of metal what do we do?

Bernard Ennis answered on 10 Nov 2015:

Well, the chance that we will run out of metals is very low because they are more or less infinitely recyclable. The problems comes not in being able to recycle the material, but in recovering it from the products that it is made into. There are lots of very precious metals in your mobile phone, but in such small amounts that it is very expensive to get it back out again and it’s cheaper to dig more metal out of the ground. When that runs out, the price goes up which makes the cost of recovery and recycling more attractive. The downside is, that your phone will get much more expensive when that happens.