Korean Environmentalists Want Cellphone Graveyard Recycled

With a mobile phone penetration rate of 76.3 percent and 36.7 million subscribers in Korea, environmentalists estimate that more than 40 million phones are out of use, reports Digital Chosunibo.

An average phone has about 30 elements, with gold makes up 0.04 percent of the weight. They also contain significant amounts of other expensive metals, like copper, which makes up 14 percent of the device, cobalt, a major element in the battery, silver, palladium and rhodium.

There are several harmful materials like lead, cadmium, arsenic, nickel and zinc. If cell phones are burned with common trash or buried in the ground, the environmental damage is potentially huge.

According to analysis, for every kilogram of cell phones, the amount of materials that could be extracted is worth between W9,000 and W10,000 (US$9-10). Take out processing costs, and there is still W1,364 left. If Korea were to recycle the 40 million unused cell phones, it could generate W7-8 billion in profits.

Regine | 9:55 AM | Cell Phone Recycling |
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