Botkin Environmental Science Earth as Living Planet 8th txtbk

520 CHAPTER 23 Materials Management
CASE STUDY
Treasures of the Cell Phone
The number of people who use cell phones in the United
States has risen from about 5 million in 1990 to nearly
200 million today. In 2009 more than 1 billion cell phones
were sold worldwide, about half of them in Asia and Japan.
Along with calls, text messaging, and video, cell phones
have connected us as never before (see opening photograph).
Cell phones are commonly replaced every two to
Plastics
58%
Ceramics
16%
Metals
25%
Flame
retardant 1%
three years as new features and services become available—
witness the iPhone’s popularity in 2008 when the new
phones came out. Each cell phone is small, but the millions
of phones retired each year in the United States collectively
contain a treasure chest of valuable metals worth over $300
million, not counting the cost of recycling (Table 23.1).
Worldwide, their value probably exceeds a billion dollars,
but although the money potentially available is attractive, a
very small percentage of discarded cell phones are recycled.
Most end up stored in our closets or disposed of at municipal
solid-waste facilities.
The life cycle of a cell phone is shown in Figure 23.1
and is typical of most electronic waste (e-waste). 1 The
primary reason more e-waste is not recycled is that we
lack a simple, effective, small-scale, inexpensive way to
do it. We also need to better educate people about the
environmental value of recycling and to offer more attractive
financial incentives to do it. Some states (California,
Manufacturing
In use
Obsolete
Discarded
In storage
(homes, office
drawers, etc.)
Refurbishing
& reuse
Materials
recovery
Recycling
Disposal
Other
uses
FIGURE 23.1 Composition and life cycle of a cell phone. (Source: Modified from D.E. Sullivan,
2006, “Recycled Cell Phones—A Treasure Trove of Valuable Metals,” U.S. Geological
Survey Fact Sheet 2006–3097.)