Old mobile phones: a potential gold mine
Antoinette van der Merwe and Isabel Günther dug deeper into Swiss drawers to find 6.5 million unused phones. Read more about this significant lost resource in our latest policy brief.
Mobile phones are the most commonly owned and one of the most frequently replaced personal electronic devices. Most people keep their old phone at home once they replace it. Although this might seem harmless, it withholds minerals from re-entering supply chains, which constitutes a significant lost resource.
We estimate that about 6.5 million unused phones are laying around in drawers in Switzerland. Return rates of old devices for recycling remain low, despite most people saying they know where to recycle their old phones. The sale of second-hand devices also is low, even more than half of people state that they are willing to sell their old devices for as little as CHF 5. Most people do not really know why they keep their old phones.
In their policy paper "Old mobile phones: a potential gold mine", Antoinette van der Merwe and Isabel Günther recommend that awareness campaigns should not only emphasise the environmental impact of e-waste but also the harm of keeping “retired” phones at home.