Determination of Metal Content of Waste Mobile Phones and Estimation of Their Recovery Potential in Turkey

Merve Sahan, Mehmet Ali Kucuker, Burak Demirel, Kerstin Kuchta and Andrew Hursthouse
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Merve Sahan: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Bogazici University, Bebek, Istanbul 3432, Turkey
Mehmet Ali Kucuker: Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics, Waste Resources Management, TUHH—Hamburg University of Technology, Harburger Schloßstr. 36, 21079 Hamburg, Germany
Burak Demirel: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Bogazici University, Bebek, Istanbul 3432, Turkey
Kerstin Kuchta: Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics, Waste Resources Management, TUHH—Hamburg University of Technology, Harburger Schloßstr. 36, 21079 Hamburg, Germany
Andrew Hursthouse: Computing Engineering & Physical Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley PA1 2BE, UK

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: Waste mobile phones constitute one of the fastest growing Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) types all over the world due to technological innovations and shortening of their life span. They contain a complex mix of various materials, such as basic metals, precious metals and rare earth elements and represent an important secondary raw metal source. The main objectives of this study were to characterize the metal concentration of waste mobile phones by optimizing the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) operation parameters and estimate the metal recovery potential of waste mobile phones in Turkey. Therefore, selected mobile phone samples collected from a recycling center in Turkey were analyzed to determine their metal concentrations. Then, the theoretical recovery potentials of precious and rare earth metals from waste mobile phones were estimated for Turkey. The analytical methods optimized in this study can help further research activities to obtain comprehensive data for determination of the critical metals (precious metals and rare earth elements) in WEEE samples so that proper recycling and recovery strategies can be selected and implemented.

Keywords: mobile phone; characterization; precious metals; rare earth elements; recovery potential; WEEE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:5:p:887-:d:212828

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