Urban miners look for precious metals in cell phones

Thinking of throwing out your old cell phone? Think again. Maybe you should mine it first for gold, silver, copper and a host of other metals embedded in the electronics -- many of which are enjoying near-record prices. Reuters reports.

"It's called "urban mining," scavenging through the scrap metal in old electronic products in search of such gems as iridium and gold, and it is a growth industry around the world as metal prices skyrocket.

The materials recovered are reused in new electronics parts and the gold and other precious metals are melted down and sold as ingots to jewelers and investors as well as back to manufacturers who use gold in the circuit boards of mobile phones because gold conducts electricity even better than copper."

Recycled Mobile Phones - Still a Few Years Away

Mobile phones made predominantly from recycled components are still several years away, a senior official at Nokia said last week. Markus Terho, a director at Nokia's environmental affairs unit, told a news conference that he expects so called "green phones" will become a "competitive factor," in the future though.

"It's a few years away," Terho said, noting though that recycled materials already accounted for 40-60 percent of the metal components within Nokia's mobile phones.

... Smaller packaging for mobile phones can help. In 2006. Nokia saved around US$160 million on transport and material costs by end of 2007 from that decision."

[via Cellular News]

Apple Offers Free Recycling of Any Brand - A Greener Apple

After recent criticism from environmental groups, Apple has decided to polish its green image by offering free recycling both on-line and in stores of CPUs, iPods and mobile phones. They are accepting any brand computer or cell phone, not just Macs and iPhones. And they even pay for the shipping.

There are no conditions about the iPod or phones recycling, but you have to purchase a qualifying Apple computer or monitor in order to receive a free recycling of your old computer and monitor — regardless of the manufacturer.

[via TrendHunter]

Nokia's Remade Concept

With Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo presenting a short video of the REMADE mobile phone during the Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Raphael Grignani is able to share one of the case-studies addressing sustainability hos team has been working on passionately.

The intent was to create a device made from nothing new.

We drew on a simple insight that in the not too distant future humanity will have extracted and worked much of the valuable minerals once buried in planet Earth. We will be compelled to reuse and celebrate what is essentially “above ground”. Thus we explored the use of reclaimed and upcycled materials that could ultimately change the way we make things.

In remade, recycled materials from metal cans, plastic bottles, and car tyres are used beautifully; whilst helping reduce landfill and preserving natural resources. The concept also addresses cleaner engine technologies, and energy efficiency through power saving graphics.

Remade is a concept that explores potential new ideas for the future, and is part of Nokia's ongoing work looking at how it can help people make more sustainable choices. It is designed to help inspire and stimulate discussion on how mobile devices might be made in the future.

Watch the video on Nokia's YouTube channel.

The Secret Life of Cell Phones

What happens to a cell phone tossed? That's a question The Secret Life of Cell Phones answers.

This short educational film shows what happens when you throw a phone into a black bin -- as well as what happens when you take just a few minutes to make sure your phone gets refurbished or recycled.

The Secret Life of Cell Phone's just the first of a series of short Secret Life films from INFORM, a NY-based environmental organization. Each Secret Life video will look at what happens to everyday products we all use after we throw them "away." After all, "away" is never really that far away.

[via LA Times Blog]

U.S. consumers getting better at recycling cell phones

The good news for the environment is that U.S. consumers who bought new mobile handsets in the fourth quarter of 2007 recycled their old phones at double the rate that they did in the third quarter. [via Cellular News]

The bad news for the environment is that even after the rate nearly doubled, only 9.4 percent of those consumers took the recycling option in the fourth quarter, according to data from iSuppli's ConsumerTrak service.

"iSuppli's fourth-quarter survey indicated that while U.S. consumers increasingly are recycling their old handsets, there's still plenty of room for improvement," said Greg Sheppard, chief development officer for iSuppli.

The Afterlife of Cellphones

A growing international trade in discarded mobile phones is helping the world’s poor. But will it poison the earth? asks The New York Times.

"Cellphones are the most valuable form of e-waste. Each one contains about a dollar’s worth of precious metals, mostly gold. And while single phones house far less hazardous material than a computer — an old, clunky monitor can incorporate seven pounds of lead — their cumulative presence is staggering.

Last year, according to ABI Research, 1.2 billion phones were sold worldwide. Sixty percent of them probably replaced existing ones. In the United States, phones are cast aside after, on average, 12 months. And according to the industry trade group CTIA, four out of every five people in the country own cellphones."

ReCellular recycles 6 million phones in 2007

ReCellular.com collected 6 Million Phones in 2007, the most ever by a recycling company and diverted more than 1 million pounds of materials from landfills by recycling efforts.

The company employed 240 people at facilities in Michigan, Texas, Hong Kong, and Brazil.

[via Reuters]

Mayor’s Office Hopes “Every New Yorker” Will Recycle Phones With Nokia

Nokia is launching a recycling campaign with a goal to collect 100,000 unwanted mobile devices between now and America Recycles Day 2007, November 15th. The Environmental Leader reports.

"The program is launching today at Nokia’s flagship store in Manhattan, where Nokia and WWF will highlight contributions that businesses can make to address environmental issues and promote environmental awareness.

Nokia says consumers can recycle phones by dropping phones off in stores, getting a postage-paid green mailer at the Nokia flagship store, calling a new nation-wide toll free number, or downloading postage-paid return labels online.

Mayor Bloomberg’s office is supporting the program and has challenged New Yorkers to take part in recycling their unwanted mobile phones."

Alcatel offers environmentally-friendly packaging for new handset range

Alcatelhas made the first move in cutting back on the packaging that comes with a handset, according to Tech Digest.

"Working alongside Carbon Footprint Alcatel has managed to reduce the packaging for its new mobile range, making it three times smaller than before. That means reducing CO2 emissions, as well as reducing the amount of retail and home clutter."

Cellphone recycling bins at Tokyo convenience stores

Pink Tentacle reports that NTT Docomo and am/pm Japan have announced plans to begin equipping convenience stores with cellphone recycling bins, making it easier for people to recycle their unwanted handsets.

"Since 1998, Japan’s wireless providers have been recycling unwanted phones in their own stores for customers who switch models or cancel their contracts. In recent years, however, more and more customers are waiting to recycle their old handsets, as phones have grown more sophisticated and hold greater amounts of important data that users need to access after switching models.

The recycling bins, which are designed to prevent people from stealing the cellphones inside, are open to unwanted handsets of all makes and models.

In 2005, NTT harvested 37,993 kg (42 tons) of copper and 145 kg (320 pounds) of gold from old phones.

Hoarding old mobile phones slows EU recycle drive

Europeans hoarding old mobile phones are creating a small headache for policy makers who want to collect and recycle batteries, an industry association said, reports The Washington Post.

"I don't know about you but I kept my old first cellular phone," European Battery Recycling Association (EBRA) President Bertrand Schutz said. (Personale note: anyone like me? I have kept ALL my phones since 1999 and I change every six months - as a sort of history line of cell phones)

A European Commission official said member states had been given sufficient time to reach the targets and producers must finance communication campaigns to persuade consumers to cooperate."

"Phones for Food” campaign

Simcoe reports on a cell phone recycling program that offers food in exchange for cell phones.

"Rogers Cable has partnered with food banks across Canada to promote their new “Phones for Food” recycling phone campaign, while generating income for the agencies that provide emergency food assistance every year to hundreds of thousands of Canadians.

... One wireless device, such as a used cell phone, can be worth between two and five dollars – the equivalent of a jar of peanut butter or a carton of milk, said Enzo Facca, director of planning and construction for Rogers."

CTIA Celebrates America Recycles Day 2006 November 15

Today, CTIA-The Wireless Associationand its member companies will mark America Recycles Day 2006 by reminding wireless consumers to recycle their used wireless products in an environmentally sound manner. [Press release]

All of the major national wireless carriers, as well as many regional and local carriers, have programs in place to recycle retired wireless equipment.

You can recycle your wireless device through drop-off locations, mail back programs, through internet auction sites, or by donating it to charity.

Three things to remember before you recycle your wireless phone:

-- Terminate your service

-- Clear the phone's memory of contacts and other stored personal information using the data eraser tool from ReCellular at wirelessrecycling.com/home/data_eraser

-- Remove your phone's SIM card, if it has one.

Virgin Mobile starts recycling program

Virgin Mobile USA is getting into the recycling business -- sort of, according to Endgadget Mobile.

"Their new program, announced yesterday, provides buyers of Virgin's prepaid phones with a prepaid envelope inside the box to return an old phone in. All the sale proceeds will go to helping homeless youth.

Verizon and T-Mobile have also been spotted distributing similar mailers with new purchases."

Company rings up sales by recycling cellular phones

What began as a side venture for a computer refurbishing company 15 years ago has evolved into a cell phone recycling empire with $40 million in sales and more than 250 employees. The Clarion Ledger reports on one company's amazing success story.

"In the last five months, ReCellular Inc. went from restoring 400 phones a month to 300,000 phones, largely from a partnership with cell phone companies including Verizon, Cingular and T-Mobile. The companies give their cellular customers postage-paid envelopes to donate their old phones when they trade them in.

Industry researcher Blumberg & Associates says ReCellular claims 53 percent of the market.

... The antiquated phones the recycling company receives get new faces, and the data on them are erased. Then they're sold in the United States and in more than 30 other countries. Overseas, refurbished phones sell for an average of $18, but some range from $40 to $100.

Refurbished phones are in high demand in developing countries where cell phone service differs greatly from that used in the United States, Newman said.

Three other companies are ReCellular's main competitors: GRC Wireless Recycling and RMS Communications and Collective Good

GRC has 13 percent of the market, while RMS has 9 percent and CollectiveGood 7 percent.

... An estimated 3.5 million phones have been donated to charity since such programs began in 1999."

Sold Cell Phones Share Your Secrets

Selling your old phone - or recycling it - can be like handing over your diaries, according toThe Associated Press.

"All sorts of sensitive information pile up inside our cell phones, and deleting it may be more difficult than you think.

A popular practice among sellers, resetting the phone, often means sensitive information appears to have been erased. But it can be resurrected using specialized yet inexpensive software found on the Internet.

A company, Trust Digital bought 10 different phones from leading manufacturers on eBay this summer to test phone-security tools it sells for businesses - and found:

-- One company's plans to win a multimillion-dollar federal transportation contract.
-- E-mails about another firm's $50,000 payment for a software license.
-- Bank accounts and passwords.
-- Details of prescriptions and receipts for one worker's utility payments.

The recovered information was equal to 27,000 pages -- a stack of printouts 8 feet high."

Related stories:

-- Stolen Cell Phone and Breaking Down Boundaries

-- $ 20'00 phone bill after woman's phone was stolen from recycling bin

-- Porn sent to new cell phone - but cell phone number was recycled

-- Getting a new Cell Phone and the Old Owner's Subscriptions

Recycled cellphones help drive Third World wireless boom

With the number of cellphones in use worldwide hitting 2 billion and rising, recycled phones are playing a crucial role in the spread of wireless communications across the developing world, where land lines can be costly or unavailable. USA Today reports.

"The odds are good that a refurbished cellphone in the pocket of a user in Bolivia, Jamaica, Kenya, Ukraine or Yemen originated with ReCellular. Based in small-town Michigan, ReCellular gets 75,000 used phones a week — most collected in charity fundraisers — and refurbishes them for sale around the world.

ReCellular has more than half the U.S. phone recycling business.

Nokia develops "self-destructing" phones

Nokia has created a prototype of a cell phone that dissembles itself in two seconds. [From TreeHugger via SciFi Tech Blog]

"Today, most cell phones and other small electronics are shredded instead of taken apart for recycling, because the disassembly time is too expensive for the amount of material reclaimed. In contrast, a process called "active disassembly" is all about creating gadgets that can break into their component parts just by being exposed to heat or magnetism. It saves money, and the materials can be recovered more efficiently.

Here is Nokia's outline of the disassembly processes they are working on":

Nokia Research Center, together with a student group from Helsinki University of Technology, the Finnish School of Watchmaking and the University of Art and Design Helsinki have developed a process for heat disassembly of portable devices.

Laser heating is a feasible method due to its speed and precision. However, it requires investment in a proper disassembly line.

California launches "mandatory" cellphone recycling program

America's first state-wide mandatory cell phone recycling law targeting wireless retailers and goes into effect July 1, 2006, requiring cell phone retailers in California to establish a collection and recycling program. [via
Engadget]

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.

Finding new homes for old phones

Re-using old mobile phones is not just good for the environment, it has social benefits too. [via the BBC]

A new report by Forum of the Future now makes the social case for reburbished mobile phones, arguing that they lower the barrier to entry for people in less developed countries to get access to mobile services. "

Some recylcing projects and related articles:

-- Old mobile phones to help Tsunami plight

-- Recycled phones and "blood Tantalum

-- Cell Phone Recycling Guide

-- Cell Phones for Soldiers

-- Give your old mobiles to Charity

-- Cell Phone Recycling Act signed by Schwarzenegger

-- California Adopts Cell Phone Recycling Law

-- Cell Phone Recycling Bill

-- Recycling cell phones for a great cause

-- U.S. Cellular launches phone recycling effort

-- Police collect cell phones for seniors

-- GPS cell phone system to help battered women

-- Trade group promotes cell phone recycling

-- City has cellphone recycling day

-- Recycling cellphones in Denmark

-- Mobile Phone Recycling Program

-- Trade group promotes cell phone recycling

-- Recycling Program a Tough Cell

-- Recycling cell phones