Recover raw materials and protect the environment: There’s titanium, silver and even gold around your home

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When it comes to raw materials in Switzerland, the first thing that comes to mind is the international trade groups located here. Otherwise, our education system is often seen as the only raw material we have in this country. There are certainly mineral resources, Dr. “Switzerland is rich in metallic raw materials,” says Monica Vogel, co-president of the Swiss Geological Society.

Dr. Bird about metals and precious metals that are found thousands of times in Swiss homes and are easily accessible. The geologist calls this urban mining. He sees great potential there.

«There are approximately 8 to 10 million mobile phones in Switzerland that are no longer needed. Various raw materials are used in it: gold, nickel, silver, cobalt, titanium, aluminum. These are all raw materials that can be extracted from devices and used to create new devices,” emphasizes Monica Vogel.

These devices are estimated to contain approximately 120,000 kilograms of copper, 2,400 kilograms of silver and 240 kilograms of gold, to name just a few of the materials that can be recycled. The financial value of these unused mobile phones alone is likely to be more than 60 million francs.

According to a 2022 study by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), there are approximately three million unused but still working mobile phones in Swiss homes. In addition, there are as many as seven million broken devices, according to an estimate by the Swico association, which deals with the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment.

In this electronic waste, not only the mentioned raw materials remain dormant. By recovering it, pollutant emissions can be greatly reduced. “3 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions are reduced every year by recovering iron, aluminium, copper, gold, silver and palladium alone,” Swico managing director Judith Bellaiche said at an event last year.

Considering that approximately 75 percent of CO₂ emissions come from mobile phone production and that approximately one-third of obsolete devices are still working and can be remanufactured, the environmental benefit becomes even clearer.

The aforementioned ZHAW study shows that many people keep their old mobile phones as backup devices. Owners also clearly fear that their personal data may fall into someone else’s hands if it is transferred or destroyed. When devices are returned, they are reset to factory settings through a standard process and all data is deleted.

Those that can no longer be sold are dismantled by hand and valuable raw materials are recycled. This is circular economy at its best. The aim is to return as much of a product’s raw materials as possible back into the cycle after use and use them in new products. The term urban mining summarizes this type of raw material extraction. Raw materials are recycled from existing devices rather than mined. This shows the potential in unused mobile phones.

“A conventional mine requires huge resources and causes a lot of CO₂ emissions. But if you need already used metals and close the circular economy by recycling them, CO₂ emissions are reduced and the environment is protected,” says geologist Monica Vogel. For example, recycling aluminum saves up to 95 percent of energy and up to 85 percent of CO₂ emissions compared to its production.

So: bring back your old cell phones. They are literally worth their weight in gold, and recycling raw materials protects the environment.

Source : Blick