A number of landfills have been in use since long before the popularity of recycling. These landfills contain a wealth of mineral resources that are simply sitting there rotting away, and this has created a unique opportunity for "green" American mining. Miners have bought the rights to a number of different landfill facilities to conduct mining operations. With all of the precious metals and other minerals that are in electronic waste, more and more companies are looking at landfills as gold mines. This extra activity comes with larger atmospheric pollution via dust; however this is generally offset by the amount of pollution that is not being generated by mining new materials and shipping them around the world.