The benefits of recycling mobile phone batteries revealed
Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - 11:23:02
This month the Guardian reported on the ecological and economic advantages associated with recycling old mobile phone batteries, with writer, Tim Smedley, arguing that there is a significant case for promoting this sustainable activity rather than leaving unwanted devices and their precious batteries to sit in drawers or landfill sites.
The good news is that a range of regulations and laws put in place both by the British government and the European Union, mean that only a small number of the batteries we consume end up buried with other household waste.
But when it comes to the lithium-ion batteries that bring modern smartphones to life, recycling rates are seen as especially poor.
Just four or five per cent of these types of batteries which are sold for use in Europe each year get recycled, which is more to do with the fact that people tend to keep old phones, rather than relinquishing them for recycling.
Lithium-ion batteries are packed with precious metals, including cobalt, copper and aluminium, all of which can be reconstituted and reused, even if a battery is very old.
And in fact, the process of extracting these metals from old batteries uses 90 per cent less energy than mining them, based on current figures, so it is clearly the environmentally friendly option.
The fact that mining operations across the world have ethical questions to address, not just those relating to the amount of carbon they generate, should give people pause for thought.
So if you have an old mobile phone that is simply gathering dust, it is better for you and the environment if you sell it online, getting some of the value back and also making sure that its precious components are properly reused and reclaimed, to minimise energy expenditure.
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