By Sunny Yip | 14 June 2023 | 0 Comments
Cell Phone Recycling Facts & Statistics
More phones than humans?!
The number of mobile phones on the planet is growing five times faster than the number of people. In fact, mobile phones have already overtaken the human population as there are more the 7.2 billion phones in existence, based on the number of SIM cards that are active. There are fewer than 7.2 billion people though.
150+ million phones dumped a year!
Some cell phone waste statistics are astonishing. For example, the EPA estimates that 350,000 mobile phones were dumped every day in 2010. That adds up to over 152 million phones a year.
18 month phone to user life cycle
Most people only use their phone for about 18 months despite devices having a useable lifespan of about seven years.
Reused in developing countries
Some recycled phones are broken down into their component parts, but many are refurbished and then resold to users in developing countries.
Cell phone change lives
One of the most positive facts about cell phone recycling concerns the impact they have in developing countries. People can buy recycled phones cheaper than they can buy a new phone, giving them a way to communicate. This is particularly important as many people in these countries don’t have landlines. In addition, recycled phones are used to transfer money and used in business, helping the economy.
US E-waste yearly figures
Americans throw away about 9.4 million tons of electronics every year. This is more than any other country in the world.
Comparable energy saving figures
One million recycled laptops save the same amount of energy as the energy used in 3,657 homes in the U.S. each year.
12.5% of e-waste is recycled
Most e-waste is simply dumped than recycled, according to the EPA, with just 12.5 percent being recycled.
Asia global leader in phone contracts
More than half of the world’s cell phone contracts are in Asia. In total, the number of contracts in existence there is approaching six billion.
89% of the developing countries have cell phones
A report by the International Telecommunications Union says 89 percent of the population in developing countries owns a cell phone.
Cell phones eliminating landlines
Mobile phones are much more popular in Africa than landlines - 50 percent of people there have phone contracts, and just one percent have a landline.
How do you recycle e-waste?
You can recycle e-waste at many major retailers, even when you purchase the product from elsewhere. Examples of such retailers include Verizon, Staples, and Best Buy. As not all retailers take e-waste, however, the best approach is to call them first to check if they recycle the product you have.
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