Under pressure from United Nations and European Union agreements and directives, the recycling infrastructure for cell phones is growing in Western Europe.
In an article in its house publication Nickel Magazine, the Nickel Development Institute, Toronto, reports that nickel recovered from the cell phone recycling stream has been greater than anticipated because of batteries left in many of the phones.
“The amount of nickel in mobile phones (excluding the battery) varies [from] 0.5 to 1 gram,” the article notes. But the amount per phone increases significantly when nickel-cadmium or nickel-metal hydride batteries are left in recycled units.
Nickel-cadmium cell phone battery consist of from 16 to 20 percent nickel while nickel-metal hydride batteries can be made up of as much as 35 percent nickel.
The nickel harvest will probably decrease, according to the article, since cell phone makers and users are increasingly switching to lithium-ion batteries, which consist of just 1 to 1.5 percent nickel.
“Other metals such as precious metals and copper could make it viable to recycle [cell phones],” the article notes.
As cell phone recycling in Western Europe has become more mandatory, companies such as U.K.-based Shields Environmental have started amassing impressive volumes. The British company is currently collecting 1.7 million cell phones per year and has recycled 34 metric tons of batteries as part of its U.K. operations.Latest from Recycling Today
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