It is a fairly well-known fact that recycling mobile phones enables the recovery of precious metals such as gold, silver and copper. Consider the gold yielded from printed circuit boards (PCBs).
Apparently a 1 kilogram gold bar can be produced from recycling 50,000 mobiles, which is worth over £24,200 at today’s price. This is contributing to an expansion of industrial facilities engaged in the recovery of precious metals from phones. For instance, in Jurong, Singapore a factory is recovering gold at the rate of up to 10 kg every month from old computer circuit boards, printers or mobile phones and selling the precious metal to gold mongers.
However, useful materials that can be recovered from mobile phones are not limited to gold and other precious metals. The plastics contained in handsets and lithium batteries can also be recycled. They can then contribute to base materials used in the manufacture of new products.
Mobile phone recycling is growing in countries such as the UK, USA and Canada, where individuals and businesses can receive cash or other incentives for recycling their old phones. Interestingly though, recycling old mobiles has not yet gained popularity in Singapore, partially due to the lack of incentives on offer to recycle.