Abstract
Smartphones enable the function and evoluation of modern society. However, with a compressed product life cycle and growing consumer demand, a significant number of smartphones reach End-of-Life (EoL) annually. At the same time, due to many unique physical properties, rare earth elements (REE), critical, platinum group metals (PGMs) and other important metals are key for the manufacturing of smartphones. Hence, from various economic, sustainable resource management and environmental perspectives, it is crucial to understand how the metal content of different smartphones generations change over time. This study provides a detailed analysis of a high production smartphone series, produced between 2010 and 2015. Devices were first disassembled and their printed circuit boards assembly, back cameras and near field communication/wireless charging parts were analyzed for 60 elements, 30 of which are classified as environmentally critical. Results indicate that up to 70% of the three analyzed smartphone components by weight are important recyclable metals. The highest concentration elements, Cu, Ni, Sn, Zn and Fe, accounted for 93.3% while REEs and PGMs collectively accounted for 0.53% of the total recoverable elements by weight. The cradle-to-gate environmental impacts will vary proportionally based on temporal changes in elemental composition.
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