Turning Extraction Subsidies (EG GMA 1872) into Recovery Deposits

For more than 150 years, the General Mining Act of 1872 has allowed mining companies to extract valuable minerals—including gold, copper, and lithium—from public lands without paying fair-market royalties to the American public. Economists and conservation organizations often describe this as a hidden subsidy: an opportunity cost where billions of dollars that could have been collected from extractive industries instead go uncharged. If even a fraction of those unrealized royalties were captured today, they could serve as a dedicated revenue stream to address the environmental externalities of modern consumption—particularly the challenge of managing end-of-life electronics, solar panels, batteries, and other high-value waste streams.

Above, the AI feed. Below, the AI response.

NYT "Recycling Lead for U.S. Car Batteries Is Poisoning People" Stretches the Truth Farther than it Should

From New York Times reporters By Peter S. GoodmanWill Fitzgibbon and Samuel Granados

Following the tradition of Upton Sinclair's 1906 classic gotcha expose "The Jungle", Goodman, Fitzgibbon, and Granados have found a very legitimate way to make environmentalists feel bad about recycled content in auto batteries.

Recycling Lead for U.S. Car Batteries Is Poisoning People

It's much easier for reporters to visit lead recycling operations than it is to visit the only alternative to recycled content lead batteries - which is lead batteries made from mining lead ore and smelting it in a huge primary lead smelter.  The lead in an old car battery is 100% lead. The lead in virgin lead-zinc ore mined from mountains ranges from less than one percent to eight percent lead content.

Consequently (math!) primary lead smelters are about 25% larger / more active than secondary, or recycled, lead smelters. But the production of lead from virgin mining operations - like Perkoa in Burkina Faso, Africa - is really hard to get to, hard to photograph, and stays quiet, not claiming any environmental advantage. 



So if the story was about nutrition, Goodman, Fizgibbon and Granados would be reporting on urban food coops,  not on cannabilism, because it's going to grab the attention of NYTimes readers. That's very typical of journalism, and it has a value in forcing improvement at recycling facilities and urban food cooperatives. We appreciate criticism and the opportunity to improve.

But when not a word or sentence anywhere about the difference between mining and recycling lead acid batteries. Therefore, it is criminally negligent in context.

FACT:  United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates 73% of USA auto batteries are recycled content rather than mined content.

Recycling: In 2019, about 1.2 million tons of secondary lead was produced, an amount equivalent to 73% of apparent domestic consumption. Nearly all secondary lead was recovered from old scrap, mostly lead-acid batteries. Import Sources (2015–18): Refined metal: Canada, 44%; Mexico, 18%; Republic of Korea, 17%; India, 5%; and other, 16%.

https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2020/mcs2020-lead.pdf

That's a lot of content right there in that paragraph.  It leaves a lot of mental gymnastics to do to tie automobile scrap generated in Africa, removed in African scrap markets, smelted in African secondary smelters, and sold on the London Metals Exchange as metal, to responsibility to USA car manufacturers.  #DataJournalism called, they want their focus back.

"IT'S ALIVE!" Author Stephen King's Personal Vintage FM Broadcaster To Go Back Online In Ghana, Africa

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Vintage Stephen King FM Station Broadcaster “Rises Again” for Halloween—Bound for Accra, Ghana to Champion Reuse & Recycling




IT’S ALIVE!

Middlebury, VT & Accra, Ghana — [October 28, 2025] — In a season made for re-animation, a piece of broadcasting history is getting a second life. A 1980s-era FM radio broadcast station once used by author Stephen King has been recovered in Maine by Matthew Strong, a retired electronics recycler, collected and conserved by Good Point Recycling of Vermont, and purchased by BridgeSolarPower.com CEO Emmanuel Nyaletey of Ghana. The vintage gear will be co-owned by BridgeSolarPower.com and Good Point Recycling and installed in Accra for community programming that spotlights electronics reuse, safe recycling, and circular-economy jobs.

Broadcast Electronics FM10 10Kw FM transmitter with qty 4 4CX7500A tubes

“Finding this equipment felt like uncovering a time capsule,” said Matthew Strong, who recognized the significance of the station and preserved its key components. “It’s satisfying to know the next chapter won’t just be museum glass—it’ll be on the air, creating public value.”

The project pairs BridgeSolarPower.com’s energy-access mission with Good Point Recycling’s fair-trade reuse ethos. “Stephen King helped make Maine famous for stories that travel,” said Robin Ingenthron, spokesperson for Good Point Recycling. “Sending this gear responsibly to Accra—where radio still stitches communities together—turns a great story into a working system. It proves that reuse, when done right, is not a horror show—it’s the hero of resource conservation.”

BridgeSolarPower.com will host the restored studio as part of a public-interest broadcast initiative focused on right-to-repair, safe handling of end-of-life devices, technician training, and the economics of reuse in African markets. The programming will include interviews with local repairers (“the real experts”), call-in shows on product longevity, and segments demystifying environmental compliance and downstream accountability.

“This isn’t nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake,” said Emmanuel Nyaletey, CEO of BridgeSolarPower.com. “Ghana’s tech sector runs on ingenuity and repair culture. A functioning broadcast studio gives us a megaphone to share practical advice, highlight good actors, and inspire young people to turn reuse into careers. It’s about jobs, access, and dignity—and doing it transparently.”

To Matt Strong, it was not immediately evident that Stephen King’s broadcaster had survived since it was decommissioned.  “When we arrived at the transmitter site, it was obvious that nobody had been there for quite awhile… the door stuck… And as we got it open, it erupted into the Sargasso Sea of ticks. They were everywhere, outside, inside the equipment, and began to crawl all over us!  We all agreed it could be a theme for a Stephen King story.”

The partners emphasized that all international movements are being managed with proper documentation and that the equipment, once commissioned in Accra, will operate as a teaching platform for electronics testing, safe refurbishment, and compliant materials handling. “We want trade readers to see the model: verify demand, document flows, elevate local technicians, and measure impact,” Ingenthron added. “That’s how reuse outperforms disposal.”  The three businesses are aligned under the mission of FairTradeRecycling.org, an international NGO based in Middlebury, Vermont.

Specifications

STEPHEN KING’s Broadcast Electronics FM10 10Kw FM transmitter with qty 4 4CX7500A tubes, one installed and 3 spares (all filaments test good). Complete manual, large box of (new) spare parts, spare blower motor (new in box).  Tuned @ 103.3 (was WKIT in Bangor Maine) 

Made in October of 1987.


About BridgeSolarPower.com

BridgeSolarPower.com develops community-scale energy and technology solutions in West Africa, bridging access gaps with practical, locally serviced systems. The company invests in training, local supply chains, and circular-economy practices to keep equipment in service longer.

About Good Point Recycling

Good Point Recycling (American Retroworks Inc.) is a Vermont-based, ISO/R2-certified electronics reuse and recycling company known for Fair Trade Recycling partnerships and transparent downstream management. GPR supports right-to-repair, technician training, and data-driven environmental compliance.

Media Contacts

Good Point Recycling (Vermont)
Robin Ingenthron, Spokesperson
(802) 382-8500 | press@goodpointrecycling.net | GoodPointRecycling.net

BridgeSolarPower.com (Ghana)
Media Relations
info@bridgesolarpower.com | BridgeSolarPower.com


Halloween kicker: From the King of horror to the kings of reuse, this station isn’t haunting the attic anymore—it’s back on the air. In recycling, we don’t fear the afterlife… we call it a second life. 👻📻