Shopping Product Reviews

Mobile phones and recycling

Did you end up with that old cell phone you’ve been using for a couple of years? Before you throw it away, listen to this! You must first look at the metals inside the cell phone.

There can be gold, silver, copper, and many other types of metals inside. Some of these metals are at near record prices, so they might get you a penny! This is called “urban mining,” which involves looking through old electronics for valuable gems like iridium or gold. This system is a growing industry around the world as the prices of these metals increase.

Recycled materials can be used in the production of new electronics and gold and other metals are collected and sold separately to jewelers, speculators and manufacturers, who use gold as a conductor in the production of circuit boards for mobile phones.

Did you know that discarded cell phones produce more than 30 times the amount of gold that you get from a gold mine? Research by Yokohama Metal reveals that a ton of ore from a gold mine produces an average of 5 g of gold, while a ton of discarded mobile phones yields 150 g or more. Furthermore, the same volume of discarded mobile phones produces approximately 100 kg of copper and 3 kg of silver, as well as various other metals. Mobile phone recycling remains popular as metal prices hit an all-time high. In the US, gold is trading at about $ 890 an ounce, after hitting an all-time high of $ 1,030.80 in March. Not only has the price of gold reached a record; Copper, tin and silver prices are also well above long-term averages.

In Japan, they use recycled electronics because there are so many old electronics, like cell phones and other devices, that are thrown away annually by consumers and that can be used to feed the billion dollar electronics industry. They don’t have enough natural resources to constantly make new electronic products. First, recycled electronic devices and other devices are classified into different groups and disassembled by hand. It is then placed in chemicals that dissolve unnecessary materials, and then the remaining metal is refined.

The environmental industry struggles to get enough old cell phones for its recycling plants, despite growing interest in the environment and recycling. In Japan, the 128 million people use a cell phone for an average of two years and eight months. Therefore, many cell phones are thrown away every year, but only 10-20% of phones are recycled because people prefer to keep them in their closets to prevent personal data on their phones from being breached. Only 558 tons of old phones were collected for recycling in the year to March 2007. This is a third less than three years ago, according to industry figures. With the rise in metal prices, the Japanese industry faces increasing competition for scrap, increasing prices for everyone.

Some companies in Japan are importing previously used circuit boards from Singapore and Indonesia, due to the fact that they contain valuable minor metals that are particularly desirable to Japan. Indium, one of these minor metals, is a crucial ingredient in flat screen televisions and computer screens. Antimony and bismuth are vital for producing a variety of high-tech products. Due to the fact that China’s export controls are stricter, these metals are difficult to obtain, which subsequently makes them difficult for Japanese manufacturers to acquire. That’s where urban miners come in.

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