Recycling Gadgets

We greet you. Today we would like to raise a topic that is not very popular among both manufacturers and users. This is the topic of recycling old and outdated electronics. Any device sooner or later breaks down, or becomes unnecessary, and turns out to be in a landfill. In some countries, caring and executive citizens hand over old equipment for processing, sincerely believing that in this way they do not pollute the world. Alas, at best, they do not pollute their own country, just e-waste is taken overseas . Of course, some of it is still being recycled, but very small.

And sales of phones, smartphones, tablets and other gadgets are growing. Now they will be joined by a watch, virtual reality glasses are on the way. And all this technique contains about a third of the periodic table. About that, from what our gadgets consist and how well they can be recycled, read our translation .

By the end of this year, about 1,800,000,000 mobile phones will be sold worldwide. And only in some years approximately 44% from them will roll unnecessary. Approximately the same share will be resold in the secondary market, and 4% will end up in landfills. And only 3% will be handed over for processing.
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This depressing statistic is provided by Hywel Jones of Sheffild Hallam University . On average, a modern mobile phone contains about 300 mg of silver and 30 mg of gold. The concentration of gold in the phone is 50 times higher than in the ore in the mine. Only these two metals in the current year will be used at 2.5 billion dollars.

In general, our phones consist of about 40 chemical elements . And of these, only 17 can be recycled, at best, at 95%, even in such complex enterprises with melting and electrolysis shops, like the giant Umicore plant in Antwerp, Belgium. In developing countries, where manual disassembly of electronics is often used, the degree of processing is much lower, and is accompanied by an increased risk of poisoning with various harmful substances, including heavy metals and acids.

In an effort to discourage the growth of this problem, private technology firms are developing systems that will help recycle mobile phones more easily, faster and harmlessly. At the same time, scientists hope that architectures that increase the lifespan of devices, like modular phones with replaceable component blocks, will at least drastically reduce the number of devices lying unnecessary on boxes, shelves and tables around the world.

However, a number of market analysts doubt the viability of some radical approaches that look rather far-fetched and pretentious. “A lot of insane“ revolutionary ”and“ breakthrough ”technologies become just a loss of money, which is very characteristic of the areas where governments and corporations are in charge,” says research director at Lux Research . Full processing of all materials used in phones is a big and complex problem that requires finding solutions from a considerable number of disciplines. To create such a technology requires close cooperation between chemists, engineers, designers and businessmen.

Clear

The English project CLEVER ( Closed Loop Emotionally Valuable E-waste Recovery ), dealing with the problem of recycling, promotes the concept of the phone, which "is aging gracefully." It is based on the idea of ​​using completely soluble boards to facilitate the extraction of various metals. According to the project participants, their phone should consist of a certain frame, a “skeleton”, to which various “organs” are attached: a battery, a display, a motherboard, etc. All of these components will be easily replaceable. The development of this project, which began last year, was allocated $ 2.1 million, and the completion of the development is scheduled for 2016.



Specialists from CLEVER together with researchers from the University of Lokboro are also engaged in studying the mechanism of consumers' emotional attachment to their gadgets. Scientists are trying to figure out how to extend this attachment and how to encourage people to hand over unnecessary devices for recycling. To do this, experiments with various materials are carried out to increase the attractiveness of even a new phone.

One of the main problems in recycling is the procedure of separating plastics from metals and subsequent sorting. For example, in Australia, parts from different plastics are simply mixed, crushed and used to make objects like fence posts. Therefore, CLEVER is developing materials based on cellulose for the frame and the PCB. Also evaluated are new mixtures of combustion inhibitors, hydrophobic additives and fillers with a low dielectric constant. When such a phone needs to be recycled, the enzymes developed for this purpose will help turn cellulose into sugar. And for the extraction of metals, the CLEVER team is going to develop separation techniques, including selective dissolution in ionic liquids, followed by restoration, for example, by electroplating.

Modular telephone

The idea of ​​creating a modular phone has a not too good reputation. In 2007, an Israeli startup Modu introduced a smartphone that was inserted into electronic modules and turned into a camera or music player. The company went bankrupt shortly after the release of a product that was criticized for propriety, bulkiness and a limited number of modules. Modu’s design was later acquired by Google. The corporation plans next year to present its vision of a modular smartphone. Apparently, Apple and ZTE, the largest Chinese handset maker, are developing their options.

The prototype device from Google will be an aluminum frame with eight slots for functional modules and two slots for additional functions like a keyboard. Unlike bulky Modu connectors, Google uses magnets to connect modules. Also in the plans of the search corporation is the involvement of "hundreds of thousands of developers" to create modules. A Google partner company, Newton, is developing an initial lineup that includes an oximeter for measuring oxygen levels in the blood and lenses for night photography.

Bioprocessing

In addition to developing more long-lived phones, much effort is being made to develop more efficient and less harmful processes for extracting materials from older phones. Today, this is most often done using large-scale melting and electrolysis. In developing countries, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids (aqua regia) is often used to extract gold.

The EU has recently developed a technology for the phased extraction of materials without melting and using strong acids. Printed circuit boards are dismantled from the phones, which are then crushed and sieved. Plastics and metals are separated by flotation , in which bubbles raise to the surface particles of hydrophobic plastic, which are removed mechanically. At the same time at the bottom there are pieces of metals that are subjected to hydrometallurgical processing.

From the remaining precipitation, gold is leached using the chloride-hypochlorite method and then filtered onto mats from the mycelium. This so-called biomining method allows to extract up to 80% of gold. When the “mushroom” filter is saturated with metal, it is either over-leached, or ashes the biomass itself, simply burned. This biosyte is much more environmentally friendly compared to remelting, during which a large amount of emissions is generated.

eVOLV

In turn, Entegris , a major supplier of materials for the electronics industry, announced the creation of a closed-cycle recycling process called eVOLV, which allows extracting up to 98% of valuable metals at room temperature and 30-40% cheaper than during melting. In this case, chips are removed from the motherboard, and lead, tin, and silver are removed using acid. A mixture of reusable 70% water and does not contain solvents, surfactants, cyanide or aqua regia. The authors declare that their process makes it possible to extract 1 kg of useful materials from waste 1 kg of waste-free production. Metals are recovered either in pure form or in the form of oxide powders. Chips are sold for recycling or reuse. A separate stage of processing is devoted to selective dissolution of precious metals. All water used in recycling is cleaned and reused. PCBs are sold for copper, iron, or aluminum.

The authors of the process claim that eVOLV is modular, that is, certain stages can be added or excluded, depending on the current situation.

Skepticism

However, not all technologies are destined to live and develop. Most ideas, including bioprocessing, can never become commercially viable and sink into oblivion. In fact, no matter how much the above described technologies have the potential, it does not seem that the largest smelting companies will somehow worry about this. For example, the mentioned Umicore is going to increase its production capacity by 40%, having invested more than 100 million dollars in it. After that, they will be able to recycle about 500,000 tons of electronic waste per year.

Conclusion

Both traditional and innovative processing companies can ignore each other for as long as they want, but they cannot deny one thing: all of them have enough old gadgets. If you somehow get people to pick them up from the far corners. This applies not only to mobile phones, but to the rest of the electronics, including televisions, tape recorders, radios, etc. Against this background, YotaPhone looks quite surprisingly more than others. As you remember, the second non-liquid ink display allows you to use your smartphone and as a reader for electronic books. That is, one device replaces the traditional and already familiar bundle of ordinary smartphone and "reader". Which sooner or later turn into electronic trash. Yes, like YotaPhone. But in his case, the waste will be two times less. And if you remember how many readers are sold in the world, then the benefit for our planet turns out to be more than weighty.