R&S: Please leave a message
By Rebecca and Sarah
What do chemists know about mobile technology? More than you’d think given the cocktail of metals, chemicals and circuitry in an every-day mobile telephone. Rebecca and Sarah take a closer look.
R - I’m so excited Sarah. I have finally traded in the brick! I now have the most amazing, all-singing, all-dancing mobile ever. Who would have thought there was more to mobiles than games?
S - Ha, ha. You only held onto that phone for so long because nobody could beat your top score at Snake! Surely it’s time you progressed to Snake II?
R - Oi, cheeky minx! What’s so great about your phone then?
S - Admittedly my phone is not as flash as yours, I’ve had it a while. Did you know that on average people only keep their phones for 18 months? That means about 1712 people in the UK upgrade their phone every hour!
R - That’s astronomical. But aren’t they designed to last about 10 years? Except the battery that is, I always end up with one that dies in the first week!
S - You can often get some great trade-in deals with phone companies, so I guess they make it pretty enticing to upgrade. Funny then that over 23 million of us just abandon them at the bottom of a draw.
R - Well I’ve got four of them lurking in a draw somewhere, amongst other things! But apart from when you’re forced to trade them in for a new deal, there aren’t many ways to get rid of them. I suppose I could just throw them away.
S - No you can’t! We have enough landfill problems in the UK without you putting your mobiles in there too! In your lifetime you will get through approximately three tonnes of electrical products. Imagine if you threw all that lot in the bin!
R -
Thinking about it, mobiles consist of a lot of heavy metals - copper, iron, lead, mercury, cadmium and even some silver and gold. Add the battery to the equation and that is a fairly toxic mix for the environment. Is there any way of recycling or reusing the parts? Circuit boards could be inserted into a new phone surely?
S - I’ve never really thought about what’s inside - I usually have enough trouble just inserting the SIM card! I reckon it would be quite fiddly extracting metals from inside a phone - it probably wouldn’t be very cost-effective. Wouldn’t it be great if someone invented a mobile that lasted forever?
R - Well, you’re in luck, because somebody already did! It is a beautiful mobile, with a beautiful five-figure price tag too! This baby has a white gold handset, with a titanium back cover and a hard sapphire crystal screen designed to be scratch resistant. To top it all off, it has an upgradeable circuit board, so never again will you be left behind by technology.
S - Blimey. Five figures eh? Not sure a chemist’s salary will stretch to that! Maybe that will become the romantic gift of the future. Forget diamonds, I want an engagement ring-tone!
R&S - Chuckle, chuckle.
Did you know?
By putting your phone in a mobile recycling bin rather than your bottom draw, you could be helping business to boom in Africa. Most discarded phones are only 12 to 18 months old so it is more cost-effective to re-use rather than melt them down. Phones are sent to developing countries where landlines are scarce. For example, fishermen in Tanzania can phone from their boat to find out which market will give them the best fish prices - and all with your unwanted mobile!
