The present and future availability of high-tech minerals in waste mobile phones: Evidence from China

Abstract

High-tech minerals are key raw materials in national strategic emerging industries. Waste mobile phones contain a variety of high-tech minerals. With rapid economic development and improvements in living standards, mobile phones are becoming one of the most commonly used electronic devices among all electrical and electronic products. Since 2004, China has been the world's largest mobile phone-producing and phone-consuming country, and correspondingly, it has generated excessive waste. In this paper, the dynamic material flow method and the Weibull distribution are used to analyze the quantity of waste mobile phones generated and the quantities of the high-tech minerals they contain based on the differentiation between feature phones and smartphones. Additionally, future trends regarding high-tech minerals in waste mobile phones are predicted using a market supply A model. Our research results show an increasing trend of waste mobile phone generation, indicating that a considerable amount of the high-tech minerals they contain can be recycled. Finally, the following recommendations were proposed to further improve the management and development system of waste mobile phones in China: the development of a high-tech mineral data base is urgent; policies should be formulated and implemented by governments to improve the overall waste management system; the ecological design of products should be improved by manufacturers; dismantling and refining technologies should be enhanced by recycling companies to improve the recycling rate; and the public awareness of recycling should be strengthened.

Analyzing present and future availability of critical high-tech minerals in waste cellphones: A case study of India

“…Different countries classify CHTMs differently. For example, in China, CHTMs are composed of a variety of metals defined by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Key Laboratory of Strategic Studies, including 17 rare earth metals ( He et al, 2020 , He et al, 2018 ). In India, the minerals of rare metals, tantalum, tungsten, barium, cobalt, lithium, niobium, rubidium, cesium, tin, cadmium, mercury, molybdenum, and vanadium, in addition to nickel and zircon are regarded as strategic high-tech minerals (Randive and Jawadand, 2019).…”

“…The mineral value can be calculated via a specific economic and technical assessment system. This system considers some geological, economic and technological factors associated with mines or mineral deposits ( He et al, 2018 , Lu and Xie, 2009 ). In this study, the resource availability of various CHTMs refers to the social stocks of CHTMS.…”

“…Critical high-tech minerals (CHTMs) are “minor” metals on which modern technology is cumulatively reliant to perform specialized functions ( Nassar et al, 2015 ). The stocks of CHTMs on earth are limited, and acquiring them from natural virgin ore is difficult due to technical and economic limitations ( He et al, 2018 ). The availability of these CHTMs is, thus, reliant on not only the specific mining production of their host mineral(s) but also whether the companion minerals are properly recovered rather than discarded without having been processed ( Nassar et al, 2015 ).…”

“… Holgersson et al (2018) analyzed the metal/mineral content of waste smartphones and waste feature phones in Sweden and discovered that the lead content in smartphones is lower than that in feature phones, while the contents of other toxic metals/minerals are similar. He et al (2018) conducted a study on HTMs in waste mobile phones and measured a considerable quantity of HTMs stored in waste cellphones that could be recycled in the Chinese market. Liu et al (2019) concluded that non-PCB components of waste mobile phones account for more than 50% of the total economic value in terms of the recovery potential.…”

“…Several studies highlight the Chinese scenario. For example, He et al (2018) revealed the Chinese situation related to the present and future status of HTMs stored in waste mobile phones. To the best of our knowledge, no previous known study has been conducted to estimate the production and future trends of cellphones in India, including the differentiation between smartphones and feature phones.…”