Undoubtedly, the controversy around the amount of e-waste being generated has gone to new heights. The recent Netflix production of ‘Buy Now-The Shopping Conspiracy highlights the increasing debate .’ Whatever your thoughts on the push to built-in obsolescence with mobile phones, televisions and computers: there can be little doubt that the volume of e-waste is rising exponentially throughout the world. Clearly this trend is likely to continue. Absolutely, our increasing reliance on technology and the Ai revolution are likely to see shorter lifecycles for technology products. This will impact phones and laptops.
This reliance on technology continues to put pressure on the global supply of materials. Definitely essential for manufacturing these devices. With the growing risk of trade wars, the importance of recycling metals and other elements will become more evident. Importantly, the materials required for electronic devices include gold, platinum, rhodium, cobalt and lithium. As well as the 17 ‘rare earth elements, which includes materials such as neodymium and lanthanum. Indeed, gold is found in printed circuit boards while various rare-earth metals are used in display screens and magnets.
Platinum and rhodium are vital components for the catalytic converters used in cars to reduce emissions, while lithium and cobalt are used for batteries in smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles. Indeed, consumer trends in recent years including working from home has fuelled the growth for new laptops and mobiles. It should be noted that home entertainment and gaming have also seen significant increases in television and game console sales.
UK Royal Mint opens a recycling plant
In the UK the Royal Mint has opened a recycling plant to recover gold from e-waste. Additionally, they are hopeful of recovering 450 kgs of gold from about 4.000 tonnes of e-waste. Furthermore, this could then be used to potentially manufacture 13 million phones. The average smartphone contains around 34mg of gold. This accounts for over 60% of the value of the metal-based parts of the phone per device.
In contrast, in Australia we are yet to see an evolution or this type of recycling. One of the challenges is that the extraction and purification of metals from phones requires a high utilisation of energy. According to the Global E-Waste Monitor 2024 Australia recycles only 22.3% of its total electronic waste.
Eco E-Waste as part of the Ecocycle Group, plays a pivotal role in Australia’s e-waste recycling efforts. It is one of the five co-regulated organisations under the National Television and Computer Recycling (NTCRS) to provide responsible recycling services for in scope E-waste including computers, laptops, TVs, and peripherals.
Scaling up investment
According to Doug Rowe MD for the group. “ Without a doubt the biggest challenge is the need to scale up investment into e-waste processing”. “At a time when recyclers need to achieve a reasonable return on their investment I don’t think there is a strong understanding of the technology required to extract the important minerals contained within e-waste”. “If you are going to encourage this fledgling industry you need a commercial price to process that recognises their products have to be disposed of at the end of their useful life”. Doug said.
The issue of product stewardship and a manufacturer’s responsibility in terms of its end of life is being debated and discussed. Whose responsibility, is it? Consumer, manufacturer or supplier? More and more companies are realising that a ‘cradle to grave’ responsibility is expected by consumers and that the increased disposal of e-waste to landfill is no longer acceptable. Nevertheless programs like ‘Buy Now” are bringing new oxygen to the debate with the likelihood that the push for urban mining will be more pronounced in the years ahead.
