• About
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Sunday, May 29, 2022
  • Login
MYTECHMAG-A Leading Technology Magazine
Payments Summit Europe Top Banner
Project Finance & Project Financial Modelling Top Banner
Cyber Defense Top Banner
Exhivits The Virtual Exhibition Top Banner
Qube Events NPF Top Banner
Data Driven Oil & Gas 2022 Top Banner
CCUS Top Banner
Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreements Top Banner
LNG Top Banner
Labware Top Banner
Digital Transformation Conference Top Banner
Energy Storage Top Banner
OGAD Top Banner
  • Home
  • Technology
    • Supply Chain
    • Enterprise Security
    • Cloud Technology
    • RegTech
    • HPC
    • Collaboration
    • IOT
    • Compliance
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Field Service
    • CRM
    • Project Management
    • Fintech
    • Risk Management
    • Cyber Security
    • Enterprise Architecture
    • EAM
    • ECM
    • Block Chain
    • Data Analytics
    • Robotics
    • Disaster Recovery
    • Marketing
  • Industry
    • Retail
    • Healthcare
    • Construction
    • Pharma
    • Education
    • Textile
    • Aerospace and Defense
    • Banking
    • Smart City
    • Oil and Gas
    • Telecom
    • Travel & Hospitality
    • Agri Tech
    • Media & Entertainment
    • Logistics
    • Manufacturing
    • Legal
    • Government
    • Real Estate
    • Automotive
    • Food and Beverage
    • Biotech
    • HR
    • Insurance
    • Energy and Utilities
    • Contact Center
    • Capital Market
    • Chemical
    • Sports
  • Solution Providers
    • Aerospace and Defense
    • Agri Tech
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Automotive
    • Banking
    • Capital Market
    • Cloud Technology
    • Collaboration
    • Construction
    • Contact Center
    • CRM
    • Cyber Security
    • Data Analytics
    • Disaster Recovery
    • EAM
    • ECM
    • Energy and Utilities
    • Enterprise Architecture
    • Enterprise Security
    • Fintech
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Insurance
    • IOT
    • Legal
    • Logistics
    • Manufacturing
    • Marketing
    • Oil and Gas
    • Pharma
    • Retail
    • Risk Management
    • Smart City
    • Supply Chain
    • Top CEOs
  • Magazines EditionsMost Clicked
  • News
  • Featured Articles
  • Top CEOs
  • Events
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Technology
    • Supply Chain
    • Enterprise Security
    • Cloud Technology
    • RegTech
    • HPC
    • Collaboration
    • IOT
    • Compliance
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Field Service
    • CRM
    • Project Management
    • Fintech
    • Risk Management
    • Cyber Security
    • Enterprise Architecture
    • EAM
    • ECM
    • Block Chain
    • Data Analytics
    • Robotics
    • Disaster Recovery
    • Marketing
  • Industry
    • Retail
    • Healthcare
    • Construction
    • Pharma
    • Education
    • Textile
    • Aerospace and Defense
    • Banking
    • Smart City
    • Oil and Gas
    • Telecom
    • Travel & Hospitality
    • Agri Tech
    • Media & Entertainment
    • Logistics
    • Manufacturing
    • Legal
    • Government
    • Real Estate
    • Automotive
    • Food and Beverage
    • Biotech
    • HR
    • Insurance
    • Energy and Utilities
    • Contact Center
    • Capital Market
    • Chemical
    • Sports
  • Solution Providers
    • Aerospace and Defense
    • Agri Tech
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Automotive
    • Banking
    • Capital Market
    • Cloud Technology
    • Collaboration
    • Construction
    • Contact Center
    • CRM
    • Cyber Security
    • Data Analytics
    • Disaster Recovery
    • EAM
    • ECM
    • Energy and Utilities
    • Enterprise Architecture
    • Enterprise Security
    • Fintech
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Insurance
    • IOT
    • Legal
    • Logistics
    • Manufacturing
    • Marketing
    • Oil and Gas
    • Pharma
    • Retail
    • Risk Management
    • Smart City
    • Supply Chain
    • Top CEOs
  • Magazines EditionsMost Clicked
  • News
  • Featured Articles
  • Top CEOs
  • Events
MYTECHMAG-A Leading Technology Magazine
No Result
View All Result
MYTECHMAG-A Leading Technology Magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home Manufacturing Executive Voice

The Circular Economy of a Mobile Phone

Arun Karottu and Alex Cummings by Arun Karottu and Alex Cummings
September 26, 2019
in Executive Voice, Manufacturing
The Circular Economy of a Mobile Phone
32
SHARES
126
VIEWS

The iPhone has been around for 12 years – the first iPhone was released in 2007. Yet Apple has already sold over 2.2 billion units 1. These are incredible sales numbers and indicate how ubiquitous iPhones – and smartphones in general – have become.

But the iPhone is also symbolic of our wasteful culture. With a mere two-year average lifecycle, smartphones are more or less disposable 2. Apple estimates that only around 900 million iPhones are currently in use worldwide 3.

This means that over 1.3 billion iPhones have already been discarded – just 12 years after the product first entered the market. What does this wastefulness mean for the environment? Are we doing enough to handle cell phone waste responsibly?

My experiences as the co-founder of SMR Worldwide – an e-waste recycling company – give me a unique perspective on the supply chain of cell phone waste. Using this perspective, I will try to shed some light on what happens to a phone after it is dead for good.

The Landfill Problem

According to an EPA study published in 2009, only around 9% of discarded mobile devices are collected for recycling every year 4. This study is from 10 years ago, so I like to think things have improved a lot since then.

However, even today, phones are most likely discarded mobile phones end up in landfills. , is highly harmful to the environment since these phones contain heavy metals like Lead, Mercury contains and Arsenic 5, and other materials like Lithium-ion batteries and plastics. , is also wasteful because the Copper, Gold, Silver, Aluminum, etc. contained in these devices go unrecovered.

Landfilling cell phones is by far the biggest issue when it comes to managing cell phone waste. We must be more proactive in making sure our old phones are collected for recycling. There are many ways you can do this:

  • AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all have recycling and trade-in programs
  • You can drop your old phone into an EcoATM for cash
  • The Apple Store accepts old phones for trade-in via mail or at the store
  • Best Buy stores accept old phones for recycling
  • The Cell Phone Recycling Process

Cell phone recycling in the US is a fairly efficient process. Most companies engaged in the trade and movement of cell phone waste in the US are governed by the Responsible Recycling (R2) or the e-Stewards standards and are regularly audited. Nevertheless, there is yet a long way to before we can say we handle cell phone waste well.

The Circular Economy of a Mobile Phone

The complete supply chain of cell phone waste is quite complicated. So I’m focusing on just 3 main components:

1). LCD Screens

The majority of cell phone screens can be reused – they don’t need to be recycled. At SMR, we test every LCD screen we receive for cracks and bleeds. Screens that are in good shape are sent to manufacturers of electronics like coffee machines, IP phones, printers, etc. that have smaller and lower quality screens.

The mobile phone LCDs are cut into the appropriate shape and put into these brand new products. As you can imagine, it is a very efficient way of giving these screens a second life. The screens are kept out of the landfill and the manufacturers save the cost and energy required to make brand new screens.

However, if the LCDs are cracked or bleeding, they cannot be reused. They have to incinerate by companies specialized in handling materials with mercury content (like LCDs, fluorescent lamps, dry cell batteries, etc.).

The incineration process can release gases that can cause acidification of air and global warming 6. However, many of these gases are captured before they can reach the atmosphere. Hence, this is generally considered the best available method to dispose of broken LCDs.

2). Lithium-ion Batteries

99.3% of all Lead Acid batteries (like old car batteries) get recycled 7. However, only about 5% of Lithium-ion batteries get recycled 8. The rest end up in landfills.

Li-ion recycling plants are costly to build and require sophisticated equipment to treat harmful emissions generated by the smelting process 8.

On the flip side, the demand for Li-ion batteries is increasing at an alarming rate, because of the increasing number of electric cars, laptops, mobile phones, etc. being sold every year. We are also facing a worldwide shortage of raw materials like Cobalt 9. If we don’t figure out Li-ion recycling soon enough, we are heading towards a great global crisis.

Li-ion recycling is a hot topic for research and development these days. Academics all over the world are working on solving the issue, while companies like Tesla are working on closed-loop recycling programs to completely recycle and reuse all the batteries they put in their cars 10.

3). Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs)

PCB recycling is a highly lucrative industry. Many PCBs contain valuable metals like copper, silver, gold, and palladium – mobile phone PCBs, especially, have high concentrations of these metals. At SMR, our circuit boards are recycled by a multinational PCB manufacturer.

This company recovers these metals from PCBs at scale through hydrometallurgical processes and uses the recovered metals to print brand new circuit boards to be put in laptops and other electronic devices 11. But, there is a massive drawback to this process. Only the metals get recovered. The leftover fiberglass on which the boards are printed and other non-metallic parts generally end up in the landfill 12.

Conclusion

Cell phone recycling practices aren’t perfect. The Lithium-ion battery recycling process, especially, has a long way to go. That being said, most cell phone components are recycled effectively and lead to the recovery of many valuable resources. We, in the US, also have a healthy refurbishment and reuse market for mobile devices. This extends the lifecycle of mobile devices significantly.

References

  • https://www.lifewire.com/how-many-iphones-have-been-sold-1999500
  • https://www.fastcompany.com/90165365/smartphones-are-wrecking-the-planet-faster-than-anyone-expected
  • https://www.idownloadblog.com/2019/01/30/900-million-iphones-milestone/
  • https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/20130621-13-p-0298.pdf
  • https://www.e-cycle.com/cell-phone-toxins-and-the-harmful-effects-on-the-human-body-when-recycled-improperly/
  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27679968
  • https://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/battery-council-international-lead-battery-recycling/
  • https://cen.acs.org/materials/energy-storage/time-serious-recycling-lithium/97/i28
  • https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-lithium-electric-tesla-exclusive-int/exclusive-tesla-expects-global-shortage-of-electric-vehicle-battery-minerals-sources-idUSKCN1S81QI
  • https://cleantechnica.com/2018/06/07/yes-tesla-recycles-all-of-its-spent-batteries-wants-to-do-more-in-the-future/
  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279557352_Recovery_of_precious_metals_from_electronic_scrap_by_hydrometallurgical_processing_routes
  • https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-05/documents/handout-10-circuitboards.pdf
Share2Tweet8Share13
Previous Post

EAM Edition Sep 2019

Next Post

Synthetic Biology in Automotive Industry for Renewable Energy

Arun Karottu and Alex Cummings

Arun Karottu and Alex Cummings

About Authors and Company - Arun Karottu (Co-Founder/CTO at SMR Worldwide) - Alex Cummings (Marketing Specialist at SMR Worldwide) About SMR Worldwide: Our mission is “Transforming yesterday’s technology into the supply chain of tomorrow” as we become the world’s most disruptive vision for last-mile IT asset management. We partner with the world’s leading manufacturers, highest volume IT distributors, and most privacy-obsessed enterprises. Our focus is to deliver the best turnkey ITAD programs from end-to-end while protecting our client’s brand and reputation while minimizing environmental impacts. For more information on SMR, please call us at (704) 873-8878 or email at [email protected] Our website URL is www.smr-worldwide.com. We’re creating new solutions all the time, adding not only new service locations but new service capabilities.

Related Posts

Mike Melzer
Executive Voice

How the Great 8 Transforms Your Manufacturing From Good to Great [White Paper]

December 8, 2021
MYTECHMAG Manufacturing Edition Dec 2021
Manufacturing Edition

Manufacturing Edition Dec 2021

December 2, 2021
Alithya Logo
Manufacturing Solution Providers

Providing Strategic Advice, Guidance & Support using Microsoft Dynamics 365

December 2, 2021
Next Post
Synthetic Biology in Automotive Industry for Renewable Energy

Synthetic Biology in Automotive Industry for Renewable Energy

Energy Storage Side Banner
Data Driven Oil & Gas 2022 Side Banner
OGAD Side Banner
Cyber Defense Side Banner
Project Finance & Project Financial Modelling Side Banner
Digital Transformation Conference Side Banner
Payments Summit Europe Side Banner
LNG Side Banner
CCUS Side Banner
Qube Events NPF Side Banner
Exhivits The Virtual Exhibition Side Banner
Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreements Side Banner
Tweets by MyTechMag
Cyber Defense Side Banner
MYTECHMAG

Transforming news into insights, not only do we serve as a source of information but as the breeding ground for innovative ideas and exchange of breathtaking strategizes that can make a difference in your technological understanding.

Follow Us

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Sitemap
  • News
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • RSS
  • Write For Us

Recent Posts

What is the Impact of Aerospace and Defense on the US Economy?

What is the Impact of Aerospace and Defense on the US Economy?

May 25, 2022
Stephen Kosslyn

Stephen Kosslyn Net Worth, Biography, Age, Career, Salary & More 

May 24, 2022
  • About
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© Copyright © 2022 MYTECHMAG. All Right Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Technology
  • Industry
  • Solution Providers
  • Magazines Editions
  • News
  • Featured Articles
  • Top CEOs
  • Events

© Copyright © 2022 MYTECHMAG. All Right Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In