Many people may not realise that mobile phone recycling companies actually give priority to refurbishing handsets. Recycling is not the prime objective and it is only pursued when re-use is not possible. The sustainable goal is to prevent electronics from entering the environment by keeping them in the consumer stream. When recycling is necessary it can encompass handsets, batteries, phone chargers and accessories as well as paper and plastic shipping materials.
A variety of precious metals can be reclaimed from recycling and these include copper, silver and gold from recycled circuit boards and electronics accessories. Significant quantities of these precious metals are being recovered, but much more could be achieved. A major benefit from increased recycling would be to substantially reduce the quantity of raw materials needing to be extracted from the earth to manufacture new phones. We should welcome the fact that more mobile phone recyclers are entering the market because the problem of disposing of e-waste is going to increase astronomically over the next few years. For example, India is set to see a 500% increase in e-waste and China and South Africa are expecting to undergo a 400% increase over the next ten years from 2007.