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> Yes, the 1 cent coins have little copper, but multiple millions are produced per year Billions are produced per year, not millions. The mint makes on average

> Yes, the 1 cent coins have little copper, but multiple millions are produced per year Billions are produced per year, not millions. The mint makes on average 10 billion pennies per year, https://qz.com/1318203/making-pennies-costs-the-us-mint-millions/ https://qz.com/1318203/making-pennies-costs-the-us-mint-mill... Varies by year. It is still a totally irrelevant amount of copper. One penny has 2.95g of copper in it. 10 billion pennies have 30,000 tons of copper in them. Worldwide copper production is 20 million tons. 0.015% of the world's copper is used for pennies. That's a rounding error. Just because a number is big, doesn't mean it matters. Sure. Get rid of the penny. But not because it will impact our copper supply in any way.

sixstringtheory 4y ago
Still, I care less about relative quantities and more about what can be produced with the absolute amount at hand. How many houses, cars or circuit boards could be made with 30,000 tons a year? There’s always some bigger problem you can point to that seems to render the point at hand useless, but as they say, 30K tons of copper saved is 30K tons of copper earned.
- light_hue_1 4y ago
  > Still, I care less about relative quantities and more about what can be produced with the absolute amount at hand This attitude is exactly why our planet is dying. Instead of investing time and effort into things that matter, people become hyper-focused on worthless things that have no impact. Like measures to conserve a trivial amount of water at home. It's a poisonous and wasteful way to think. > There’s always some bigger problem you can point to that seems to render the point at hand useless That's simply not true. We have real problems to solve. The numbers are clear. This isn't one of them.
walnutclosefarm 4y ago
I believe you've misplaced a decimal in your conclusion. 30,000 is 0.15% of 20,000,000, not .015%. Still pretty insignificant, though.

sixstringtheory 4y ago

Still, I care less about relative quantities and more about what can be produced with the absolute amount at hand. How many houses, cars or circuit boards could be made with 30,000 tons a year? There’s always some bigger problem you can point to that seems to render the point at hand useless, but as they say, 30K tons of copper saved is 30K tons of copper earned.

light_hue_1 4y ago
> Still, I care less about relative quantities and more about what can be produced with the absolute amount at hand This attitude is exactly why our planet is dying. Instead of investing time and effort into things that matter, people become hyper-focused on worthless things that have no impact. Like measures to conserve a trivial amount of water at home. It's a poisonous and wasteful way to think. > There’s always some bigger problem you can point to that seems to render the point at hand useless That's simply not true. We have real problems to solve. The numbers are clear. This isn't one of them.

walnutclosefarm 4y ago

I believe you've misplaced a decimal in your conclusion. 30,000 is 0.15% of 20,000,000, not .015%. Still pretty insignificant, though.