Mobile Phone Recycling

We only have the one planet and despite the ever advancing technology and all the sci-fi we are surrounded by in this day and age we will not be getting a new one any time soon.

The best way to make the most of the planet is make the most of what it gives us and this really means recycling.

In the 80’s it was cool to recycle and magnets were handed out in school so kids could check if cans were made of steel or aluminium so that they knew if the individual can they had just drank from was recyclable, this indirectly put pressure on manufacturers who in turn stopped using non-recyclable materials. About this time a fuss was also kicked up about recycling paper and other household items.

2011 is the age of mobile phone recycling, while this process has yet to take off or even really become mainstream knowledge it is picking up.
At the moment peoples motivation for recycling can be questioned as companies are often offering 100’s of pounds to people who are willing to send their used handsets in, however, this can be looked upon as 21st century bribery with the same group of people. The child who was happy to be given a magnet 30 years ago is now quite happy to receive £200!

As time goes on people and manufacturers will become more knowledgeable and informed about the mobile recycling process and, hopefully, the same level of interest and concern that was given to the cans will occur again.

While there are far more cans produced and disposed of than mobile phones the actual damage per unit when you put a mobile phone handset alongside a can is astronomical, the phone wins hands down.

A mobile phone that is disposed of in an irresponsible manner can seep chemicals and toxins into the world for hundreds of years. As you would expect, with something so much more damaging the recycle process is also much more challenging, breaking down the components in an mobile phone is no easy feat and to make matters more complex the process that is used today could be obsolete tomorrow with the new technology and advances in phone design and components.

The ever evolving mobile phone battery (and charger for that matter) are a recycling case study to themselves, these two elements need specialist attention to make sure that they are broken down in ways that cannot cause serious damage to the environment.

Hopefully by 2031 (or ideally much sooner) people will be as aware and clued up on mobile phone recycling as they are with recycling of everyday household items today.