Lithium ion batteries are removed from cellphones at the beginning of the recycling process. (Paul Sancya/AP)
In Depth
Cellphones
Recycling
Where pre-owned cellphones go
Last Updated November 22, 2007
By Nicole Tomlinson
A technician erases data from a recycled cell phone at ReCellular in Dexter, Mich. (Paul Sancya/AP)
There are many ways to go green when you're getting rid of your old cellphone — carriers, charities and municipalities across Canada have drop-off and mail-in programs that keep handsets out of landfills.
But after you toss an old handset into a collection bin, where exactly does it go?
Gordon Weis, founder of the Canadian division of The Wireless Source, says his company either refurbishes or recycles about two million used handsets a year in North America.
Old cellphones that The Wireless Source gathers in Canada are shipped to a plant in Newmarket, Ont., where they're sorted, stripped of their batteries and accessories, and sent down one of two eco-friendly paths.
If the cellphone is still usable
Handsets that aren't broken or technologically obsolete are refurbished and then re-sold by The Wireless Source in North America, as well as on foreign markets, Weis said.
First, the handset undergoes a physical observation. A technician checks to make sure the screen works, the touch-pad buttons are in decent condition and the casing and housing aren't cracked.
Next, it goes through a series of electronic and functional tests to ensure that the phone can still make a test call. Features such as cameras and music players are also checked out.
Then any personal data from the previous owner is wiped from the phone's memory. Weis says it isn't always possible to erase software installed on the handset by cellphone companies — the carriers are generally reluctant to cough up the unlock codes — but the company always tries to come as close as it can to restoring the device to its original default condition.
Once the memory is wiped clean, the handset is either fitted with a new battery, charger and user's manual to be marketed as a "complete" package, or it's left as-is and sold wholesale.
Weis estimates 30 to 40 per cent of the used cellphones refurbished by The Wireless Source are resold in North America. The others, generally older makes and models, are sold to offshore markets, such as South America, Africa and Eastern Europe.
Refurbished phones are ideal for markets where pre-paid airtime cards are popular, because carriers typically don't subsidize the cost of the handset for pre-paid plans, Weis said. Customers are more likely to opt for a pre-owned phone to avoid footing the bill for a new handset, which can cost hundreds of dollars more than a refurbished model.
If the cellphone is a paperweight
When The Wireless Source receives a cellphone that is either broken or a technological dinosaur, it is sent to one of several recycling plants where copper and other metals are recovered from the handset's circuit board.
SIMS Recycling Solutions, the world's largest electronics recycling organization, has a facility in Brampton, Ont., that can handle more than 18,000 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment, or WEEE, a year.
Cellphones and other WEEE, such as computers, monitors and photocopiers, arrive at the plant from three main sources — product manufacturers, corporations and municipalities — according to Cindy Coutts, the facility's director.
After handsets are weighed, barcoded and checked for hazards, such as batteries that shouldn't be shredded, they're mixed in with other WEEE and the recycling process begins, Coutts says.
First, big mechanical shredders break up the WEEE, destroying all the data on the phone in the process. Then, separation equipment sorts it by resource, isolating steel, aluminum, copper, plastic and circuit boards.
Copper, the most abundant metal in a handset, as well as others such as steel and aluminum, are sent to separate smelters. The machines then refine metals by heating them and extracting impurities.
The process generates high-grade recycled metal. For example, copper that's been processed at the Brampton plant comes out 99 per cent pure, Coutts says. It's then sent to another facility on Montreal for "electrolytic refining" — a technology that adds a few more decimals to the purity rating.
The resulting metal is 99.99 per cent pure, "about as pure as you can get," according to Coutts, and is up to a standard that can be sold anywhere in the world and used for any application.
Unlike metals in handsets, plastics aren't recyclable because cellphones from different manufacturers have unique chemical compositions. But Coutts says the petrochemical-based material from cellphones and other WEEE still has a role to play in the recycling process. SIMS uses the material as a fossil fuel alternative to power its smelters, reducing the carbon cost of recycling electronic waste.
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