Cell phones

Only 15% of the 25 million cell phones sold each year in France are collected and join repair, processing or recycling channels at the end of their life. These were the findings of a senatorial report published in October on the end-of-life of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), and more specifically cell phones. According to the document, smartphones – i.e. 84% of the cell phones sold nowadays – are virtually absent from WEEE collections.
 
Almost 100 million uncollected telephones “sleep in the drawers of our fellow citizens,” highlights the report, while others finish their life in unofficial channels, purchased at auction by brokers in the form of used equipment lots. This illegal traffic circumvents the regulations on transboundary waste movement. According to Interpol, 1.3 million metric tons of WEEE left the European Union in this way without the required authorization in 2012, often headed for Africa and Asia. Even though the repair, reuse or recycling of the millions of cell phones in circulation on the market could fuel a French sector and create jobs.

More:
> Circular Economy: What happens to your Smartphones?
> We turn waste into materials 
> #LivingCircular
> Veolia solution: More than 80% of WEEE recycled in Angers

Video: WEEE, a source of raw materials