The Secret Life Of Cell Phones
Where do old cell phones and mobile devices go when you recycle them? Why should you take those phones out of your sock drawer and take them back? What toxics are in a typical cell phone? How much gold and silver is in a cell phone? How do I recycle my cell phones and mobile devices?
This work is licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Step 1: Cell phones:
I have owned at least five or six cell phones.
I have used in my lifetime cell phones about like 15 or 20 a lot.
I have my old one and probably maybe like three other older phones I think they’re on a shelf.
In 1985, there were less than half a million cell phones in the United States. Today there are 233 million so you just have this tremendous expansion. Inform decided to do a project on this.
Step 2: 150+ million phones replaced per year
If we assume that on average, a person uses a phone for a year and a half that means over a 150 million phones are replaced every year. The question is what’s happening with those 150 million phones.
I have about five phones and they just sit around in the junk drawer.
I think most people would take it to the garbage cans. I know my friends that’s what they do.
Step 3: Where the phones go:
Put it in the trash and it ends up in an incinerator or a landfill from which these toxic substances can leach into the environment into soil, into water and into air. There are a number of legislators who are on to the issue.Rep.
I was concerned that very few cell phones are being recycled. What my bill does is it requires is it requires manufactures and retailers to take back cell phones for recycling or refurbishing. To my knowledge, not very many states have taken this action.
Step 4: People lack awareness:
So do you know that you can recycle cell phones?
No, I didn’t know that...
I have no idea.
What we’ve seen is that people are just not aware. Wireless stores could do more to raise awareness about their recycling programs. They could make recycling containers, mail in bags more visible, and communicate with customers more about recycling. I just dropped off my old cell phone for recycling so what happens next?
Step 5: The phones are checked.
Once the phones arrive at a collection facility here in the U.S., they separate out the chargers and accessories and send those for recycling. The phones are then powered up to be sure they have a good screen and a test call is placed to make sure they work. Some cosmetic work is done personal data is removed and new software is often loaded on to prepare the phone for reuse. Refurbished phones that stay in the U.S. are either sold to smaller carriers or to warranty repair programs. Refurbished phones are also sold to overseas markets such as Asia or Latin America. Unfortunately, there are some electronics that are shipped out of the U.S. that haven’t even been tested. The Basel Action Network or U.S. based nonprofit has documented the dumping of non-working electronics in China and Nigeria.
Step 6: Recovering materials:
We are a chemical precious metal refining in Holbrook in Belgium. We are specializing in the recovery of precious metals and if you’re thinking about a cell phone that is indeed the type of material, which has a high intrinsic metal value. If we recycle one ton of cell phones we will recover more then 3.5 kilograms of silver. If you send us three metric tons of cell phones, we will have produced this tiny but valuable bar of gold. We will recycle the cell phones in an environmentally sound way. It also means that we will have to do less mining and also by doing less mining the environment will benefit.
Step 7: Recycle your cell phone.
The key is to move to a closed loop pattern of materials use. What you have with cell phones and with a lot of products in our society is that we extract the materials we make them into products we use them for a very short period of time and then we throw them away. Well if we use them longer if we take them back and recycle them we are moving to the closed loop pattern. Surveys show that people want to do the right thing.
Yeah I if people knew what it would do then they would definitely recycle.
Certainly if it doesn’t cost them more and it’s relatively convenient I think you’ll find people being very cooperative.
We would like to recycle our cell phones. We would love to recycle our cell phones if we knew how.
