Analysis of the influence of mobile phones' material composition on the economic profitability of their manual dismantling

This work presents a systematic characterisation of 100 waste mobile phones (73 feature phones and 23 smartphones) produced between 1989 and 2016. All items were inventoried and the evolvement of the relative abundances of their macro-components (mechanic and electro-mechanic parts, electronics and others) and materials was investigated. The average lifetime was 15.1 years for feature phones and 6.4 years for smartphones. The main component was plastic, on average 46%-wt. in feature phones and 37%-wt. in smartphones; over the years electronics’ and plastic’s amounts decreased (respectively 80% and 70%), while metal components’ amount increased (12%). A cost-benefit analysis explored the profitability of the management of waste mobile phones through manual dismantling followed by the sale of the separated components and materials. The average cost of manual dismantling was estimated as 6.93 € per item according to EU average labour costs and 1.50 € per item based on minimum EU labour costs. According to the performed economic analysis, the actual market prices for the potentially recoverable materials and components of waste mobile phones were not able (particularly mixed plastics) to counterbalance the costs of manual dismantling according to the European standard labour costs.