Mobile phones look like they are made up predominantly of plastic. After all the casings will usually be plastic, those not yet using touch screen technology will have a keypad made of plastic and even the screens are a clear plastic in the majority of cases. However, there is a lot more going on in mobile phones that you might realise.
When you sell your mobile, you may well be surprised at just how much a tatty, second hand handset is worth. Whilst in some cases they will be sold on, and in others used for charitable purposes, a lot of the worth of a phone actually comes from what is within it.
On top of the plastic which can be recycled for a profit, phones also contain a wide array of other valuable materials, and mobile phone recycling is often used to source such valuable commodities. Besides plastic, there is a surprisingly large amount of gold, silver, platinum, silicon, aluminium, copper, glass and tin, as well as more obscure but equally valuable materials from tantalum through to palladium.
So whilst the technology used in these items may inform part of the price you pay, when you sell your mobile they will still be worth a great deal, even second hand, simply due to just how many valuable materials are needed to make up everything from the phone itself to the battery and the intricate components within.
So next time you get a new mobile, don’t just leave your old one languishing in a drawer, forgotten about and gathering dust. Whilst they may no longer have any worth for you physically, their physical properties are still worth a great deal. Mobile phone recycling is therefore exactly what it says it is – a way of taking valuable materials and restoring them so they can be used again. And the money you get for the privilege can be surprisingly high.