Product Stewardship
|
|
|
|
See also:
|
FREE subscription
|
Efforts are underway to recover more of the materials that go into mobile phones. By John
Guise
Nickel Magazine, June 2003 -- Many of the world's major mobile phone
manufacturers have agreed to take back old phones for recycling. In December 2002, ten manufacturers signed a
declaration, in keeping with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Basel Convention to devise
ways of keeping mobile phones, and therefore the materials they contain, out of landfills. The UNEP
declaration follows a European Parliament and Council directive dealing with Waste, Electric and Electronic
Equipment, which takes effect in 2004.
Of significant concern is the amount of lead, cadmium and mercury in mobile phones that end
up in landfill sites. Other metals such as precious metals and copper could make it viable to recycle
these seemingly ubiquitous electronic units. Nickel, by comparison, is less significant.
The amount of nickel in mobile phones (excluding the battery) varies by design, from 0.5 to 1
gram. But that goes up significantly when the rechargeable batteries are included. Nickel-cadmium (containing
16-20% nickel) and nickel-metal hydride batteries (28-35% nickel) used to be the main power source for the
phones, but companies have since moved toward lighter lithium-ion batteries, which contain just 1-1.5%
nickel.
Most European manufacturers collect phones through service centres or retail outlets. Nokia, one of the
largest manufacturers, has been collecting phones in Europe through its service centres for several
years now and intends to start similar programs in the Americas. In addition to service centres, several
ideas are being considered, such as partnering with a cellular network provider, establishing a charity, or
having a national logistics company collect the phones.
Currently anyone can arrange to return a phone to Nokia in North America through its web site. Nokia is
considering different methods because "no one program is going to get all the phones back," says Donal
O'Connell, vice-president of research and development for Nokia Mobile Phones.
According to Mats Pellbäck Scharp, Sony Ericsson's director of environment, health and safety, it is the
cellular network providers who can best inform end-users about return programs, as they have a relationship
with the end-users that manufacturers don't have.
Environment Canada says Canadians threw out 516,000 phones in 1999. Among the approximately 100,000 kilograms of various plastics and metals they contain, there may be as much as 500 kilograms of nickel in these phones, and much more if the batteries are still present. By 2005, the number is expected to grow to 740,000 phones. Bell Canada is trying to counter the trend with a program called "Recycle, Re-use, Redial," which is designed to retrieve 50,000 phones in the first year alone.
A spokesman for Shields Environmental, a British company that collects old phones for manufacturers, says its collection program has saved 1.7 million phones from landfill per year and recycled 34 tonnes of batteries in the United Kingdom.
Many of the nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries in North America that are recycled go to INMETCO, a subsidiary of Inco Ltd. in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. It is able to recycle all the nickel and virtually all the cadmium it receives, or about 2,500 tonnes of nickel-cadmium batteries every year. INMETCO processes less than 1,000 tonnes of nickel-metal hydride batteries a year but is capable of handling 30 times that amount. The recycled cadmium is sold to the makers of new nickel-cadmium rechargeable batteries or used in pigments. The remaining components from the nickel-metal hydride batteries are used in non-hazardous slag as a replacement for limestone. The nickel goes into the main INMETCO process and becomes part of a nickel-iron intermediate product much sought after by the stainless steel industry.
Lithium ion batteries are sent out to an INMETCO-approved recycler, which extracts mostly cobalt and copper. Noranda also receives a small number of mobile phones from manufacturers. It processes the metal components at its copper smelter in northern Quebec to recover copper, precious metals and other metals, including nickel. Noranda's Falconbridge subsidiary has been doing limited recycling of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries at its smelter in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Currently it is evaluating whether it will expand this part of its business.
Shields collects and sorts phones for companies such as Virgin Mobile and Vodaphone. It refurbishes the
phones it can reuse, and recycles the ones it cannot. The recycled phones are broken into components, which
are then sent to recyclers.
John Guise is a professional journalist based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
PHOTOS: Courtesy of Shields Environmental
 Mats Pellbäck Scharp Donal O’Connell Duncan Bury |
<< Previous -- Next >>
