China Circular Economy Association: China produces 400 million discarded mobile phones every year, and the average lifespan of a mobile phone is about 2.2 years

Data from the China Circular Economy Association shows that the average lifespan of a mobile phone is about 2.2 years. In the past five years, China has produced more than 400 million discarded mobile phones each year, and the stock of discarded mobile phones has exceeded 2 billion. However, the association's research shows that in China, about 54.2% of discarded mobile phones are left idle by consumers, and only about 5% can enter professional recycling platforms or be recycled through new channels such as old-for-new exchanges.

Yu Keli, secretary-general of the China Material Recycling Association, said that there are three ways to recycle old mobile phones: refurbishing and selling, disassembling and utilizing, and material recycling.

For old mobile phone parts that cannot be fully utilized, recycled materials and rare precious metals can be extracted by disassembling and crushing.

It is understood that of the total mass of a mobile phone, 30%-40% is metal materials, including precious metals such as gold, silver, and palladium; 40%-50% is plastic, and the rest is glass, ceramics and other materials.

It is estimated that each ton of used mobile phones can be refined into about 200 grams of gold, 2,200 grams of silver, 100 kilograms of copper, etc., which has huge recycling value, but the recycling rate has always been low.

Currently, the main recycling channels for used mobile phones in my country include recycling by manufacturers, recycling by sales platforms (such as JD.com, which provides recycling services), and recycling by companies.

However, the used mobile phones in the recycling channels mainly come from corporate channels such as the inventory of mobile phone companies. A large number of used and idle mobile phones in the hands of consumers have not entered the recycling channels for circulation.

Zikuai Technology