While you're staring at your new phone, scientists are finding ways to recycle your old one. Used cellphones are a huge source of electronic waste.

Pedro_P

Consumer demand for the latest electronic devices contributes to the large amount of e-waste, and cell phones are the biggest problem.
Pixabay
How often do you swap out your old smartphone for a new one? Every two or three years? Every year? Today, phone companies make it easy with deals to trade in  your old phonefor the newest version. But those discarded phones are becoming a huge source of waste, with many components ending up in landfills or incinerators.
When a cell phone gets tossed, only a few materials get recycled, mostly useful metals like gold, silver, copper and palladium, which can be used in manufacturing  other products. But other materials — especially fiberglass and resins — which make up the bulk of cellphones’ circuit boards, often end up at sites where they can leak dangerous chemicals into our groundwater, soil, and air.
Consumer demand for the latest electronic devices contributes to the large amount of e-waste, and cell phones are the biggest problem. In 2006, the United Nations estimatedannual global e-waste to be about 50 million metric tons. When these products are dumped or incinerated, they release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — moreover, so does making those products in the first place.



E-waste.
Pixabay
“Manufacturing a new product requires water, soil, power, fuel, and other natural resources,” said Amit Kumar, a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia. “Dumping end-of-life electronics into landfills without recycling is a waste of those resources.  (▪ ▪ ▪)

► Read the full note here: Source

Interesting? Find more news here: ★ News Daily Bulletin ★