Urban mining can help with future smartphone demand

About the author

América Valenzuela

Science communicator

América Valenzuela is both chemist and journalist. Her passion for understanding how things work, down to the smallest detail, led her to study Chemical Sciences and her desire to communicate to journalism and communications. She has spent half her life writing for newspapers (El Mundo, El Correo and El Independiente), talking on the radio (RNE and Onda Cero), broadcasting on television (Canal 24h, La 2 and Movistar plus) and presenting at events connected to science, the environment and health. Indefatigable lover of nature, discovery and adventure documentaries, she is also the author of The Secret Life of Your Shower Head (Geoplaneta) and Bucket Science (Temas de Hoy).

Meet the author

Are you one of those people who has a drawer full of old mobile phones? If so, stop creating so much junk! Retrieve them from the drawer, you won’t believe how much they’re worth! Take them to the recycling point or leave them in the shop when you buy a new one, so they can be recycled. Such a small gesture will help you continue to enjoy your mobile experience more than ever before, as we explain below.

What will I learn from this article?

• Critical materials in smartphones
• Urban mining, an essential part of the circular economy
• Projects supporting the circularity of mobile devices.

Critical materials in smartphones

There are more mobiles in the world than people. Six phones are sold every second and it doesn’t stop there. There aren’t enough mines to supply the future demand for mineral resources. Only a few countries have access to deposits. Such that the European Union has drawn up a list of some 50 critical raw materials, i.e. essential natural resources for manufacturing technology at risk due to limited distribution, extraction difficulties and the concentration of production in a small number of countries.

And old mobile, therefore, is a treasure trove of strategic elements:

• Indium, which forms part of touchscreens
• Palladium, necessary for condensers
• Tin, useful for soldering circuits
• Tungsten, for vibrating it
• Rare earths, 17 chemical elements found in low concentrations in nature, crucial to vibrant and luminous colors in screens, light earbuds, circuits and microphones
• One ton of old mobiles will yield 300 times more gold for printed circuits than a ton of ore from a mine such as Yanacocha, Peru.
• Or six times more silver (used in circuits) than from a mine like the one in Cannington in Australia.

Urban mining, essential to the circular economy

Urban mining is all the rage for extracting precious metals from mountains of technological junk, achieving self-sufficiency and practising the circular economy,. Indeed, the aim is that, by 2030, a quarter of all strategic raw materials used by the European Union will come from recycling.

In Spain, for example, 20 million mobiles are thrown away every year. Worldwide, it’s 5 million tons. The good news is that 90% of the content of each device is recoverable. This is why it’s important they reach electronic and electrical waste management plants, where plastics can be separated from metals. The precious materials recovered are classified for sending to other plants, where they are prepared for re-entry into the market. As such, they end up forming part of new mobile devices or a wide range of other products, such as golf clubs or bicycles.

With urban mining, more indium can today be extracted than from natural deposits. Other technological precious elements, however, such as rare earth cannot be recycled industrially. Europe’s first pilot plant is being built in Spain to recover rare earths and other metals present in electronic waste. Scientists at Spain’s Scientific Research Council (CSIC) are working to discover the best way of achieving this.

Taking your phone to a recycling point also reduces pollution. Mobiles are not only priceless inside, they are poisonous. Throwing them into a landfill will contaminate the soil, water and atmosphere. Electronic waste makes up only 2% of the trash consigned to tips, but it’s responsible for 70% of toxins. And smartphones represent around 10% of the world’s electric and electronic waste.

Projects supporting circularity of mobile devices

Urban mining and smartphone recycling is driving innovation in projects contributing to the recovery of materials and the circular economy.

The Australian Recycling Program, for example, facilitates the delivery of devices such as smartphones, tablets and accessories to collection points across the country. The program recovers valuable materials, such as precious metals and plastics, which would otherwise end up in landfills, while the funds obtained from recycling them are destined to support charity organizations chosen by the donor. This allows everyone to help the cause that most interests them, whether that be educational, health-related, social care or other areas.

In the US, Cell Phones For Soldiers is a project with a similar focus, but the benefits generated are donated to members of the military and their families. With the funds obtained, the families of soldiers can call them free of charge abroad, while veterans also receive help through care programs. Since it was founded, Cell Phones For Soldiers has generated millions of minutes of conversation and recycled thousands of devices, contributing to environmental sustainability and social wellbeing.

Other such initiatives based on recycling mobiles also contribute to alleviating local problems or needs, for instance the Jane Goodall Institute and its mobile collection scheme, Mobilize for the Jungle. The campaign seeks to contribute to avoiding violence, deforesting, pollution and killing of endangered animals such as gorillas and chimpanzees.

Conflict-Free Technology by the NGO Alboan also collects phones, the recycling of which serves to fund humanitarian aid projects. The Solidarity Call project is another which uses funds obtained, in this case to research rare diseases.

Another option is to give the device a second life. Non-profit organizations such as Reciclanet recondition them and sell them on, donating the money to people without resources.

All these initiatives not only promote the reduction of electronic waste, they demonstrate how the recycling and reuse of mobile devices can have a significant social impact, support communities and contribute toward a more sustainable future.