Recycle Mobile Phones – Let’s Be Responsible
BY READERS DIGEST
27th Oct 2020 Technology
Let’s know and agree that cell phone recycling is environment friendly and keeps our planet and natural resources in the pink.
Mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have varied precious metals and plastic. When we choose to recycle mobile phones and other such devices, it not only helps to conserve the valued resources within, but it also diminishes greenhouse gas emissions that occur during manufacturing, processing, and extracting of the embedded materials.
UK produces about 55 lbs. of e-waste per person, nearly 22 lbs. more than the European Union (EU) average. Though the EU has directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment into British law, UK still has a lot to do to hit its recycling targets.
Mary Creagh MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit, mentions that the house-hold e-waste which constitutes a large number of cell phones to is piling up in a ‘tsunami of e-waste’.
4 Noble Reasons to Recycle Cell Phones:
Only about 10-15 % of the cell phones used in the United Kingdom are recycled. We can and should do better. Here's why:
- Recycling of just a single cell phone conserves enough energy to power a laptop for consistently 44 hours.
- If we could recycle the entire mass of over 130 million cell phones tossed aside annually in UK, we would gather enough energy to power approx twenty four homes for a year.
- There is around 75 lbs. of gold, 772 lbs. of silver, 33 lbs. of palladium, and 35 lbs. of copper in every one million cell phones recycled. Additionally, there’s also a considerable amount of tin, platinum, and zinc in this corpus.
- There’s also toxicity in the cell phone ingredients which would contaminate air, groundwater, and soil if dumped in landfills. Hazardous materials such as mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, and brominated flame ingredients
If Not Recycle, Then Donate Your Cell Phone:
Most Europeans change their cell phone every 18 to 24 months. The next time you have a new phone, don't shed your old ones anywhere or slide it into a drawer to gather dust. Either recycle it or if it still does its job well, consider donating it to a program that serves essential technology to low-income groups and individuals. There are also some recycling programs that work with community organizations and schools to collect unused cell phones as fundraising projects.
Apple accepts taking back the old iPhone to recycle and reuse it through its Renew program. In 2015, Apple recycled 90 mill. Lbs. of electronic waste. The constituents thus recovered include 23 mill. Lbs. of steel, 13 mill. Lbs. of plastic, and nearly 12 mill.Lbs. of glass. There were some high value recovered materials too - 2.9 mill.Lbs. of copper, 6.6Lbs. of silver, and 2.2 Lbs. of gold!
The market places for recycling broken mobile phones stretch far beyond the UK borders. The idea is to serve contemporary communication technology to people in developing nations who can’t afford it.
Helps Curbing Health Problems:
The toxicity of the cell phone materials causes not only environmental pollution and harmfulness but also poses serious health issues for both humans and animals.
For Example, lead causes cancer and affects cognitive functions in the human body. Mercury causes severe sensory impairments, memory loss, and muscle weakness in animals.
The Recycling Process:
Mostly the organizations prefer the recycle of the old cell phones in some other part of the world, often in the developing countries to ensure that the phones do not immediately land up in the trash if they are still working.
Batteries are taken out and recycled separately from the handsets. The phone is then heated and shredded to dust to undergo further chemical processing before hitting a smelter to filter all the metals in it.
Aerials, printed circuit boards, LCD screens, Microphones, speakers, screws, and battery connectors are some of the critical components that could be recycled.
A simple Google search would fetch you a list of companies that undertake recycling mobile phones in the UK.
Do Your Bit:
We live inthreatening times where our planet is prone to risks that shouldn’t be ignored. With the decreasing metal reserves, the valuable metals inside the cell phones are also precious than ever.
Let’s walk the talk and not just crawl when it comes to protecting our natural resources. Every breathing human being on the planet is responsible for doing his or her bit to curtail and stop of e-waste by choosing to recycle mobile phones.
