According to David Adam in the Guardian (8 Jan 2005), users on average replace mobiles every 18 months; 15 million are discarded in the UK each year but only 4% are recycled, isn't that staggering? They are a hazard if discarded and if they are recycled they can be put to very good use.

Currently, it is estimated that there are about 45 million phone users in the UK (Ref: the Mobile Takeback Web site, Nov 2004), with 1.25 billion mobile phone users world-wide (Ref: Eurosource Europe, Nov 2004) and this number is steadily rising. Eurosource Europe also state that 58 million replacement mobiles are bought each year in Europe, with approximately 85 million unused phones lying around in people's homes. So, millions of old phones could potentially be recycled annually, although it is estimated that fewer than 5% are.

To comply with the WEEE directive, originally it was decided that all companies would have to ensure that all mobile phones were recycled, by August 2005. In the UK plans were delayed and full WEEE compliance by producers was delayed until July 2007. The detailed terms are more complicated than this, however, and interested parties (producers and suppliers especially) should look to the ICER site. To link to ICER click here.

A number of valuable materials are used in the construction of mobile phones, and they contain components which, if carefully removed, can be used again, for example in electronic devices.

Perhaps more importantly, some cell phones and their accessories contain substances that are amongst the 10 most dangerous known to man including Cadmium, Rhodium, Palladium, Beryllium and Lead Solder (Ref: Cellular Reclamation Ltd, Nov 2004) and most of this ends up in a land fill site or the sea. This is because, at least until recently, there was no easy and safe way that you could dispose of your old mobiles, so they were just thrown in the bin. Now with so many convenient mobile phone recycling schemes around, there's no need for this - and no excuse for not recycling your old phone.

The content of mobile phones varies from model to model, and as the technology advances there will be changes in the composition. Previously published data (Ref: BT Cellnet and Mobile Takeback sites, Sept 2001) state that a reasonable average (weight percent) is:

ABS-PC 29%
Ceramics 16%
Cu and compounds 15%
Silicon Plastics 10%
Epoxy 9%
Other Plastics 8%
Iron 3%
PPS 2%
Flame retardant 1%
Nickel and compounds 1%
Zinc and compounds 1%
Silver and compounds 1%
Al, Sn, Pb, Au, Pd, Mn, etc. less than 1%

Ni-Cd batteries contain Cadmium, a dangerous toxic and carcinogenic substance; mobiles also contain arsenic, mercury and other dangerous toxic substances. The quantity in landfill sites is significant, and considerable toxic contamination is caused by the inevitable medium and long-term effects of these substances leaking into the surrounding soil.

Many schemes, including some of those referenced above, recover and reuse various parts from the phones and their accessories. These can be sent for separate metals recovery (including precious and semiprecious metals); this involves grinding down the parts to isolate metals components for recycling. Useful metal content can also be extracted from phone batteries and recycled. Plastic elements of phones can be recovered through energy-from-incineration; some plastics recovered from the outer body of recycled telephones can be granulated and reformulated and can be reused in mouldings such as car wheel trims and printer cassettes. Recovery and downgrading of valuable components, such as flash memory devices can be achieved. Useful parts include aerials, battery connectors, PCBs (printed circuit boards) , connectors including gold-coated edge contacts on PCBs, ICs (integrated circuits), keyboards, LCD screens, lenses, microphones, phone housings, screws, SIM card assemblies and speakers.

Over the years, however, another end-of-life option has emerged and is gaining popularity. It has become more common for companies to refurbish old mobiles and sell or pass these on to developing countries including eastern European countries and parts of Africa.

Many schemes set up for recycling and safe disposal of mobile phones, most of which seem to be national, are listed on the envocare site. Most are free to you, many aid charities and some can earn you cash. The schemes typically catalogue the phones, including the IMEI identification number. SIM cards are checked and any found ‘live’ are (or should be) reported back. All the equipment should be recycled in accordance with the terms of current and draft EU legislation. You should be issued with an inventory and Duty of Care Transfer Certificate that transfers the responsibility for safe disposal to the scheme. The batteries should be processed by a specialist reprocessing plant to extract the metals.

Further information on related topics will be found elsewhere on this site, for example look for Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE: click here ), Restriction of Use of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS: click here ), Batteries (click here ), Plastics (click here ) and Duty of Care.