Mobile Phones

Mobile phones can be re-used and recycled.

We run a local scheme at the Green Centre. Please bring your mobile phones, working or not, to the Green Centre at the Open market on a Thursday.  Click here to join our scheme and support the work of the Green Centre.

How are they recycled?

Most schemes recover and re-use various parts from phones and their accessories. Phone recyclers salvage many useful materials from old mobile phones;

• Separate metals recovery (including precious and semiprecious metals): The mobile parts are ground up and useful metal content extracted. Metal can be extracted from batteries too.

For every 1 million mobiles recycled, 35,724lbs of copper, 772lbs of silver and 75lbs of gold can be recovered.

• Plastic recovery: energy-from-incineration is used to recover plastic from components. Outer body plastic may be granulated and reformulated for use in mouldings.

• Recovery and downgrading of valuable components: e.g. flash memory devices.

• Re-use of parts: Useful parts include aerials, battery connectors, PCBs (printed circuit boards), connectors including gold-coated edge contacts on PCBs, ICs (integrated circuits), keyboards, LCD screens, lenses, microphones, phone housings, screws, SIM card assemblies and speakers.

• Many manufacturers have signed up to the Basel Convention agreeing to cooperate with developing environmentally sound management to end-of-life mobile phones.