There are 889 million people holding mobile phones in China, and this amazing data has undoubtedly pushed China to the top of the world in terms of the number of mobile phone users. In Chinese, a mobile phone is replaced every 15 months on average, but most of the old mobile phones are discarded at will, and only 1% of the old mobile phones are recycled.
Once discarded, discarded mobile phones, mobile phone batteries and charging equipment will contain a lot of harmful substances such as nickel and cobalt, which will cause great pollution to water and soil, and will cause hundreds of thousands of tons of electronic waste, which will inevitably lead to a great crisis of treatment. The pollution scale is much larger than that of other discarded electronic products such as discarded computers and color TVs. How to recycle and dispose of them has become a major environmental protection issue facing China.
In order to change this waste of resources, Nokia launched a program called "Green Box" in 2005, which placed collection boxes in more than 700 Nokia customer service centers and specialty stores in more than 300 cities for recycling used mobile phones. However, the number of recycled mobile phones is still very small, so where do the remaining discarded mobile phones flow?
David Kousemaker, a Dutch designer, arrived in Huaqiang North, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, where he saw the scene of mobile phones being traded as raw materials and took the following photos. He wrote in his blog Tech Travels:
There are two tall buildings in a hidden corner of Huaqiang North Business District, where people are mainly engaged in mobile phone recycling. An entrepreneur told me that he bought these mobile phones in bulk from a wholesaler, who mainly picked up used mobile phones from garbage dumps in Hong Kong and another major Asian city.
Outside the building, I saw a man sorting out bags of mobile phone chips. I don’t know what he wants to do, but I guess someone wants to buy a mobile phone and he is looking for a matching mobile phone chip.
The plastic casings of used mobile phones will also be dismantled. Although we can’t get much oil and water from these casings, because the labor force in China is low, it can also be profitable to hire workers to dismantle the metal objects on the plastic casings.
Then someone will take down the components on the chip and pick, sort and classify them.
Next, they will remove the flux and solder from the component pins and further classify them. This is the most important step for many shops that renovate their mobile phones. But a little unexpectedly, this work is mostly done by girls and young women.
Some components are so small that they can only be operated with tweezers.
Foreign netizens think that China’s seriousness in recycling electronic waste is shocking, while other countries are not very concerned about it. They think it’s time to cheer and applaud China’s behavior. Of course, some people doubt the truth of this matter, and a little thoughtful ask: What are these recycled components used for later? Although some people also leave a message explaining that Huaqiang North Business District is a second-hand mobile phone market, it seems that they can’t resist the admiration of other netizens for China.
The practice that used mobile phones are refurbished by second-hand vendors and then sold is never the right way out. Parts and shells that lose value during the refurbishment of used mobile phones will be discarded by vendors at will, and some small workshops of used mobile phones will extract precious metals in the open air, which will directly dump the residual liquid and cause secondary pollution to the environment.
Since 2011, China has officially implemented the Regulations on the Management of Recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Products, covering refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, air conditioners and computers, but mobile phones are not yet listed. The scientific disposal of used mobile phones must be supported by policies. In China, the government, society and enterprises can jointly establish a recycling mechanism for used mobile phones and establish manufacturers — Two normal recycling modes: operators and municipalities. Relevant laws and regulations should list the behaviors that should be prohibited in the process of recycling discarded mobile phones and accessories, and clarify the legal responsibilities of related illegal behaviors. At the same time, the state supports qualified pollution-free recycling enterprises of electronic waste in terms of policies and taxes to engage in the recycling and disposal of discarded mobile phones and accessories. At the same time, it encourages major mobile phone manufacturers and related enterprises to jointly finance and establish professional mobile phone recycling companies.
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