Researchers Raise Awareness of Rare Mobile Phone Materials
Wednesday, January 23, 2019 - 11:24:44
Modern smartphones are made using some rather exotic elements, including precious metals like gold and silver, so it is no surprise to see calls for increases in recycling rates for this type of gadget.
Now a new periodic table drawn up by experts working at the University of St Andrews has pinpointed yet more reasons to make changes in the way that consumers treat their outdated handsets.
The intent behind the table is to indicate the abundance of many chemical elements, from the most commonplace to the least widely available.
The table not only highlights natural materials which are becoming scarce but also singles out those that are sourced from areas in which conflicts are taking place, and thus the ethical background of the elements is up for debate.
Silver is one of the elements listed as being under serious threat of running low within the next century based on current levels of consumption. The same situation applies to other important materials found in handsets that sell by their hundreds of millions today.
This conundrum is clearly a serious one and hints at the likelihood of more issues arising as time passes and access to valuable elements diminishes. Price rises are just one aspect of what might happen unless habits are changed for the better.
By recycling old mobile phones and other types of electronics, consumers will be ensuring that there is less need to mine for these elements in their raw form. Not only will this improve availability, but it will also dramatically reduce the amount of energy and other resources that need to be expended in order to gather the necessary components which are required to build modern mobiles.
Campaigns like this could become more common as the amount of precious elements on hand dwindles globally.
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