Recycling of waste cell phones

Recycling provides environmental benefits, such as energy savings, reduced volumes of waste, and reduced emissions associated with energy savings. Cell (mobile) phones are widely circulated in much of the world at the same time. Less than one percent of the millions of cell phones retired and discarded annually are recycled. Almost all the materials used to manufacture a cell phone can be recovered where metals, plastics, batteries, and packaging materials can be recycled and turned into new products. In this study, recycling technologies are summarized and, as a case study; the possibility of recovering valuable metals from waste cell phones by using acidic leaching was studied. The process steps include dismantling waste mobile phones, pre-processing to liberate the materials, and directing them to final treatment processes. In the leaching experiments, sulfuric, nitric, and hydrochloric acids are used. In the sulfuric acid leaching experiment, the effects of acid concentration, temperature, peroxide addition, and leaching periods on metal dissolution efficiencies are investigated. Leaching efficiencies of 97.9% Fe in 8 M H2SO4 solutions, 89% Pb, 100% Ni, 90.4% Co, and 4.1% Cu in 1M HNO3 solutions, 100% Pb, and 100% Al in 4 M HCl solutions were found in one hour.