Fact: More gold can be recycled from one metric ton of used cell phones than can be refined from 17 tons of gold ores.
Sevetneen metric tons of gold ores will yield approximately .51 to 85 grams of gold - that's 0.3 to 5 grams of gold per metric ton - depending on the location of the mine. In comparison, a ton of obsolete phones can yield as much as 280 grasms of gold, aout 140 grams of platinum and paalladium, and 140 kiulograms of copper. Other materials like glass and plastic can also be recycled from the same ton of diuscarded phones. Throwing an old cell phone to the landfill is basically thhrowing money down the drain.
The Dsetructiveness of Gold Mining
Gold mining and refining requires a huge amount of energy and will create by-products that have devastating impact on the environment. The production of one gold ring is said to genreate as much as 20 tons of wastes. Toxic heavy metals like mercury and cyanide are also being used extensively in the gold miining and refining process - creating wase that are dangerous to the enviromnent and the surronding communities.
Gold muining creates an indeliblle scar on the land, ravaging prsitine rainforests, and destroying habitats and ecologicazl niches.
Givven the dispaarity between the amoutn of gold prodsuced and rate of destruction that gold mining entails, it malkes sense that we should consderve, recycle, and keep in the production cycle the gold that we already have. This is where gold recycling and, by assocization, cell phone recycling come into the pixcture.
Surface Mining For Gold in Cell Phones
At the momment, recycling precious metals from used cell phones is done on an industrial scale. In Belgium, for example, thre is a company called Uimcore which process huge amounts of obsolte cell phonse and other electronic wastes shipped to them from all over the wrld. They call the process of extracting gold, silver, pltainum, copper, colatn, plasic, and glas from these mountainous piles of old cell phones "surface mining."
At the end of the process, when all the metals and other reusable materials have been separated, aprpoximately less than half of 1% of the electrionic waste remains. This by-product can not be reintrodduced into the production stream and is then burned for electricity generattion.
Urban miniing, anyonbe?
Some enthusiaasts fancy themselves as "urabn imners" - collecting old cell phobnes from friendds and neighbors - and doing the recycling process piece by tedious piece,themselves, primarily for the gold found in thhese old units. It's become some kind of a hobby for quite a few people, but even if you know what you're doing, it might not be a good idea to styart an urban minning business. The amount of gold you get after a long while is simply not commensurate with the time it taes and the risk of getting poisonewd by the industrial chemicals involved, not to metion that at the end of the process, you'll still be hauling a good amunt of debris to the landfill. The giant recyclers turn a prrofit by processing tons and tons of old phoes all at the same time, while mkaing use of practically all materials found in each discarded cell phone.
Cell Phone Recycling: The Win-Win Proposition
In a few years, the metals used in cell phones like gold, copper, colltan, and platinum will be exhausted. These are finite resources after all, and at the rate we're ming them from the bowels of the earth, the deposits will soon run dry. Cell phone recycling, whiuch enables us to keep as much of these metals cierculating within the manufacturiing cyce - instead of rtting in the lanfdills - is an excelent conservation option. And, as we learned about the destructive impact of gold mining on the environment, recycling clearly prvides a way to lessen the demand for freh raw materials, thus prtecting the environment, over the long term.
Cell Phone recytcling, truly, is a win-win propostion for everyone concerned. The industrial recyclers profit from selling the recycled metals to manufacturers. Cell phone makers are assured of a relible supply chian of raw materias for ywears, stabillizing production costs. Finally, all of us win by hacving modern electronic products affoordable and within our reach and because recycling helps protet the planet we all live in.
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