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With a mobile phone penetration rate of 76.3 percent and 36.7 million mobile phone subscribers in Korea, environmentalists estimate that more than 40 million cell phones are out of use. They say the phones, which contain expensive and potentially harmful materials, must be properly recycled and not just thrown away.
An average 140 g-cell phone has about 30 elements, with gold makes up 0.04 percent of the weight. They also contain significant amounts of other expensive metals, like copper, which makes up 14 percent of the device, cobalt, a major element in the battery, silver, palladium and rhodium.
There are several harmful materials like lead, cadmium, arsenic, nickel and zinc. If cell phones are burned with common trash or buried in the ground, the environmental damage is potentially huge.
According to the Ministry of the Environment and Association of Electronics Environment, 36.2 million cell phones went out of use between 2001 and last year. Factor in phones produced before 2000 as well, and the Ministry of the Environment estimates the total at over 40 million.
According to analysis by the ministry, for every kilogram of cell phones, the amount of materials that could be extracted is worth between W9,000 and W10,000 (US$9-10). Take out processing costs, and there is still W1,364 left. If Korea were to recycle the 40 million unused cell phones, it could generate W7-8 billion in profits.
Hong Su-yeol of the Korea Waste Movement Network said citizens needed to be informed that discarded cell phones are a factor in environmental degradation and taught proper recycling methods.
(Hong Heon-pyo, bowler1@chosun.com )
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