Recycling gadgets

Welcome. Today we would like to raise the issue, which is not very popular among both producers and users. This is a topic shredder and obsolete electronics. Any device sooner or later breaks down or becomes unnecessary, and it appears in a landfill. In some countries and caring citizens executive rent old equipment for recycling, believing that by doing so they do not pollute the world. Alas, in the best case, they do not pollute unless their country, just e-waste trafficked overseas . Of course, some of the still goes to recycling, but very small.

A sale of phones, smartphones, tablets and other gadgets still growing. Now they are joined by the clock, on the approach of virtual reality glasses. And all of this equipment contains about a third of the periodic table. About Of what is our gadgets and how well they are recyclable, read our переводе.

By the end of this year all over the world will be sold around 1.8 billion mobile phones. And just a few years, about 44% of them will roll unnecessary. Roughly the same proportion will be resold in the secondary market, and 4% will be in the dumps. And only 3% will be handed over for recycling.

This depressing statistics provided by Hywel Jones (Hywel Jones) from the University of Sheffield Hallam ( Sheffild Hallam University ). On average, modern mobile phone contains about 300 mg of silver and 30 mg of gold. The concentration of gold in the phone 50 times higher than in the ore in the mine. Alone these two metals for the current year will be used for 2, $ 5 billion.

In general, our phones consist of about 40 chemical elements . And only 17 of them can be recycled at best 95%, even on such complex plants with melting shops and electrolysis as a giant plant Umicore a > Antwerp, Belgium. In developing countries, where it is often used manual dismantling electronics recycling rates are much lower, and is accompanied by an increased risk of poisoning by various hazardous substances, including heavy metals and acids.

In an effort to prevent the growth of this problem, private technology firms are developing systems that will help easier, faster and less harmful to recycle mobile phones. At the same time, scientists are hoping that architecture, increasing the lifespan of devices - such as phones with interchangeable modular block components - allow at least drastically reduce the number of devices lying around unnecessary for drawers, shelves and tables around the world.

However, some market analysts are skeptical about the viability of some radical approaches, looking very contrived and pretentious. «A lot of crazy" revolutionary "and" breakthrough "technologies are just a loss of money, which is very typical for areas where run by governments and corporations» i>, the director of research of the company . Complete processing of all materials used in phones is a large and complex problem that requires finding solutions on the part of a considerable number of disciplines. To create this technology requires close cooperation between chemists, engineers, designers and businessmen.

CLEVER h4> English project CLEVER (), dealing with the problem of recycling, promoting the concept of a phone that "aging gracefully." It is based on the idea of ​​using completely dissolved boards to facilitate the extraction of various metals. According to the plan of the project participants, their telephone number must consist of a certain frame - the "skeleton" - to which are attached various "authorities": battery, display, motherboard, etc. All of these components are easy to replace. The development of this project, which began last year, allocated 2, $ 1 million, and completion is scheduled for development in 2016.

Experts from CLEVER together with researchers from the University of Loughborough also are studying the mechanism of emotional attachment to their consumer gadgets. Scientists are trying to figure out how you can extend this attachment and how to encourage people to donate unwanted device for processing. For this experiment with different materials to enhance the attractiveness of even a used phone.

One of the main problems in the recycling of plastics is the procedure of separation of metals and subsequent sorting. For example, in Australia the details of the different plastics are simply mixed, crushed and used to make objects such as poles for fencing. Therefore, the development is carried CLEVER cellulose based materials for the frame and the printed circuit board. Also evaluated the new mixture of flame retardants, hydrophobic additives and fillers with low dielectric constant. When such a phone will need to recycle, then developed for this purpose, enzymes help convert cellulose into sugars. A metal recovery command CLEVER going to develop separation techniques, including selective dissolution in ionic liquids, followed by reduction, for example, electroplating.

Modular phone h4> The idea to create a modular phone is not very good reputation. In 2007, an Israeli startup Modu introduced a smartphone, which is inserted into the electronic modules and turned the camera or music player. The company went bankrupt shortly after the release of the product, which has been criticized for proprietary software, the complexity and the limited number of modules. Later development Modu were purchased Google. The corporation plans next year to present his vision of a modular smartphone. Apparently, the development of its variants involved in Apple and ZTE, China's largest handset maker.

The prototype device from Google will be an aluminum frame with eight slots for functional modules and two slots for additional functions such as keyboard. Unlike bulky connectors Modu, Google uses magnets to connect the modules. Also in the plans to attract search engine corporation worth "hundreds of thousands of developers" to create modules. Partner company Google, Newton, develops the initial lineup, including the oximeter to measure oxygen levels in the blood and lenses for photographing the night.

bioprocessing h4>
 In addition to developing a long-lived phones, takes a lot of effort to develop more effective and less harmful processes for the extraction of materials from old phones. Today, it is most often done with the help of a large-scale melting and electrolysis. In developing countries, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid (aqua regia) is often used to extract gold.

The EU has recently developed a technology for extracting the phase without melting the materials and the use of strong acids. From dismantled phones printed circuit boards, which are then crushed and sieved. Plastics and metals are separated by flotation , at which bubbles lifted to the surface of the hydrophobic particles of plastic, which can be removed by mechanical means. Thus at the bottom are pieces of metals which are subjected to hydrometallurgical treatment.

Of the remaining precipitation using chloride-hypochlorite method leached gold, then filtered on mats of mycelia. This so-called method biodobychi (biomining) allows you to extract up to 80% of the gold. When the "mushroom" is saturated with metal filter, then it either perevyschelachivayut or incinerated biomass itself, simply - burn. It is far more environmentally friendly biosposob compared to remelting in which a large amount of emissions.

eVOLV h4> In turn, the company , a major supplier of materials for the electronics industry, announced the creation of a closed loop recycling process entitled eVOLV, which allows to extract the valuable metals 98% at room temperature and 30-40% lower than the melting. In this case the motherboard chip removed, and lead, tin and silver is removed using an acid. The mixture is reusable up to 70% water and contains no solvents, surfactants, cyanide or aqua regia. The authors claim that their process allows from 1 kg of waste to extract 1 kg of useful materials, waste-free production. Metals are recovered either in pure form or in the form of oxide powders. Chips are sold for recycling or reuse. Separate processing step is dedicated to the selective dissolution of precious metals. All water used in processing, is cleaned and reused. Printed circuit boards are sold on the extraction of copper, iron or aluminum.

Process authors argue that eVOLV is modular, or that is, those other steps may be added or excluded depending on the current situation.

Skepticism h4> However, not all technologies are destined to live and grow. Most of the ideas, including bioprocessing, can never be commercially viable and sink into oblivion. In fact, no matter how potential did not have the above technology, it does not appear that the largest smelting company as something to worry about it. For example, said Umicore going to a 40% increase its production capacity by investing in more than 100 million. After that they will be able to process about 500,000 tons of electronic waste per year.

Conclusion h4> Both traditional and innovative companies, refiners can not as much as necessary to notice each other, but one can not deny it: all of them are old enough gadgets. If somehow make people povytaskivali them from distant corners. This applies not only mobile phones, but also the rest of the electronics, including TVs, stereos, radios, etc. Against this background, other more profitable rather surprisingly looks YotaPhone. As you may recall, the second display is not liquid ink and allows you to use your smartphone as a reader for electronic books. That is one device replaces the traditional and already familiar from the usual bunch of smartphone and "reading room". Which sooner or later will become e-waste. Yes, as YotaPhone. But in his case, the waste will be half the size. And if you remember how in the world of e-readers sold, the benefit for our planet turns you over weight.

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