5th ITU Green Standards Week
Nassau, The Bahamas 14-18 December 2015
From Waste to Wealth the Mobile
Phone Partnership Initiative – Getting
the ICT Sector Involved.
Ahmad A Khan
Director
Basel Convention Regional Centre for the Caribbean
ahmadkhan786@msn.com
Introduction
• Mobile Handsets are typically composed of:
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–
–
–
–
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40% of plastic,
32% of non-ferrous metals,
20% of glass and ceramics,
3% of ferrous metals and
5% of other materials.
Some 40 elements might be present, including base metals
such as copper (Cu) and tin (Sn); special or “critical” metals
such as cobalt (Co), indium (In) and antimony (Sb); and
precious, platinum-group metals such as silver (Ag),
palladium (Pd) and gold (Au).
Introduction
For every tonne of Mobile Handsets (excluding battery) this equates to:
3% of Iron
16% of Copper
3.5 kg of silver,
340 g of gold,
40 g of palladium, and
30 kg of copper.
Other constituents of concern for end-of-life management, such as bromine, lead,
chromium and arsenic, are typically found in quantities of less than 1% content.
Introduction
Mobile phones also contain plastics and halogens (including chlorine and
bromine) which, when burned, lead to the formation of dioxins and furans,
both highly toxic and carcinogenic.
The batteries and re charger units also need to be properly managed. Endof-life batteries and any associated circuit boards or electronic assemblies
containing Nickel/Cadmium alloys and lead-based solders have to be
managed in an environmentally sound way.
Current Disposal Practices in the
Caribbean
• Mobile Handsets
• Stored in place – 50%
• Transferred to a “Recycler” – 10%
• Disposed of in Landfills – 40%
• Batteries and Chargers
•
•
•
Stored in Place – 50%
Transferred to a “Recycler” – 5 %
Disposed of in Landfills – 45%
Environmental Impacts of Current
Disposal Practices
– Storage in Place
•
Leakage of Batteries
– Landfilling
• Surface water and Groundwater Contamination
• Land pollution
• Air Pollution when burned in landfill fires
– Socio-economic
• Loss of Potential Revenue Stream
Waste to Wealth
• Collection and Reuse
– Environmentally sound management of used
mobile phones has three goals to:
• Divert end-of-life mobile phones from waste streams
destined for disposal in landfills or incinerators;
• Repair, refurbish and preserve used mobile phones in
working order, so that they can be used again; and
• Channel unusable (end-of-life) mobile phones for
environmentally sound material recovery and recycling.
Waste to Wealth
• Dismantling
– Only a small percentage of the millions of mobile phones
retired and discarded annually are dismantled and
recycled
– Large quantities of valuable metals end up either in
storage or in landfills.
– If captured, the quantity of potentially recoverable metals
would make a significant addition to the total recovered
metals from recycling and would replace and supplement
virgin metals currently extracted from mining.
Waste to Wealth
– Mobile phones contain a variety of substances that require
sound handling and processing during material recovery and
recycling, in order to prevent risks to workers, the public and the
environment.
– Without appropriate health and safety procedures, including
special provisions for hazardous wastes, impacts upon human
health are likely to be severe.
– Dusts may be generated during the shredding of mobile phones,
during the subsequent handling of shredder outputs and during
the handling and/or processing of smelter slags.
– Toxic fumes may be generated during electronic components
removal, metal sampling and similar processes, as well as during
certain steps in plastics recycling, such as granulation.
Waste to Wealth
• Recycling Process
– Prior to material recovery and recycling of end-of-life mobile phones,
several items need to be separated and sorted.
– Batteries must be removed before mechanical or pyrometallurgical
processing, i.e., prior to any shredding and/or smelting.
– Accessories may also be sorted and separated from the mobile phone
handset.
– The metals of economic interest and of environmental concern are
mostly located in the electronic circuitry inside the handset. The
extracted metals – including gold, platinum, palladium and silver – are
later put back into productive use.
– ‘High value’ materials make up about 16% (by weight) of a typical
mobile phone.
Waste to Wealth
• Economic significance
– Reuse, refurbishment and recycling contributes significantly to the
economic growth of countries. The goal of sustainability is to ensure
that the nonrenewable resources are not wasted but kept in the
material life-cycle as long as possible.
– Refurbishment and recycling also have an important socio-economic
impact, particularly in developing countries. Door-to-door collection
can be profitable as can refurbishment and resale.
– Recycling is an effective way to address resource scarcity and mitigate
environment impacts associated with metal mining, processing and
use, while at the same time it creates jobs and income while
facilitating the product’s life-cycle.
Getting the ICT Sector Involved
– Working with OEMs to includes design
improvements to introduce reuse and recycling
information into product marking,
– Working with OEMs to further reducing the use of
hazardous substances, making reuse,
refurbishment, material recovery and recycling
easier and extending the life of products.
Getting the ICT Sector Involved
• ICT Service Providers to get involved in
Handset Take-Back programmes as part of
good corporate governance.
• ICT Equipment Manufacturers to also get
involved in “Extended Producer
Responsibility” Programs and “Take-Back”
programmes.
Getting the ICT Sector Involved
• ICT service providers to support community
level groups who want to invest in mobile
phone recovery and refurbishment facilities.
– Assistance in the form of funding
– Assistance in the form of facilitating technical and
HSE training.
– Providing access to new technologies for
refurbishment.
Getting the ICT Sector Involved
• OEM to support Investment in dismantling and
material recycling facilities.
– For the Caribbean this means establishing regional
clusters and allowing the movement of e-waste from
one country to the regional hubs.
– Encouraging certified recyclers to co-finance regional
facilities.
– Guaranteeing a market for recyclable materials
recovered at the business start-up stage.
Getting the ICT Sector Involved
• Further Information can be found at
http://www.basel.int/Implementation/Technic
alAssistance/Partnerships/MPPI/Overview/tab
id/3268/Default.aspx