There are a lot of phones every year that people quit using. At CES, a recycling company called ReCellular has announced that they recycled 6 million of those phones last year. That’s more than any company has ever recycled in a single year. Some of those phones were refurbished while others were beyond help and were just recycled. They did it in plants in Michigan, Texas, Brazil and Hong Kong, and they raised $20 million in the process.
There are a few astounding facts that put the meaning of 6 million phones into context. Producing those phones would use enough power to power 11,400 homes for a year, and would produce 10.3 million kilograms of carbon emissions. The phones contained a combined $3.8 million worth of precious metals.
If you are short of cash, then, you’ll find about 63 cents worth of gold, silver, platinum, palladium and copper in your phone’s circuit board. That’s almost a quarter of a small coffee, so get out a screwdriver and start dismantling.