E-waste is a silent danger.. How are old phones disposed of 2022
The world is expected to face a serious problem related to electronic waste in the coming years, as the International Waste Electrical and According to the Electronic Equipment Forum (WEEE), 5.3 billion mobile phones will be disposed of in landfills in just 2022.
Dumping this amount of electronic waste will mean that a lot of precious metals that cannot be extracted from hardware waste-such as copper in wires or cobalt in rechargeable batteries - will have to be mined, which pollutes the environment.
"People tend not to realize that all these seemingly insignificant items have great value," said the director general of the wee Foundation Pascal Leroy, to the BBC.
Additionally, according to the group, there are 16 billion mobile phones in use worldwide, with approximately a third of them being abandoned.
These phones, along with electrical and electronic waste from other sources, will grow to 74 million tons per year by 2030, according to estimates by the international forum on Waste Electrical and electronic equipment.
What are the steps for recycling mobile phones?
- The initial stage: recycling specialists separate reusable mobile phones, send them to some developing countries. For the other phones, recycling has already begun.
- Initially they disconnect the batteries and the batteries are often sent to the departments that recycle.
- After that, the smashing of mobile phones begins, and then they heat the smashed phones to a temperature that can reach 1100 degrees Celsius.
- Follow-up: after heating the smashed cell phones, the recycling specialists process the molten material using some powerful chemicals.
- And this often turns mobile phones into dust.
- After that they extract important mineral products, and then these mineral substances are redirected to other objects.
- As for plastics, they are granulated and molded into other materials.
- The final stage: after removing these various materials, manufacturers then transfer them to various recycling departments.
- And here they are used to make various things for reuse. And if they are used to make things that come into contact with food, then toxins are removed from them first.
How to avoid this complicated process?
What can be done to reduce the problem of electronic waste Leroy has some suggestions;"it is possible to provide collection bins in supermarkets.
Pick up small broken appliances when new ones are delivered, offer bins for the return of small electronic waste, and other initiatives that have been introduced to encourage the return of these items".
But we can go one step further and simply not throw away a lot of electronics, but resort to repair instead of replacement.
This approach may seem unconventional. Who wouldn't want to replace a shiny new iPhone with their old one But insisting on consumer behavior will contribute to the rapid destruction of our planet.
The most famous solutions
If the electronic device still has a good life, it would be wise to repair it and continue to use it, and the life cycle of other products also needs to be reconsidered.
Companies also need to start producing electronic devices to ensure their efficient operation for a long time and ease of repair when needed.
Consumers may not like it in the short term, but it will save them money in the long run, and it will also help save our planet from the huge problem of electronic waste.
Finally, for irreparable devices, it is important to think about how to creatively recycle them into useful and sometimes stylish alternatives.
The problem of e-waste is big, but with a little positive thinking and some innovative ideas can ensure that it is addressed in a wise way.