The Missing Rare Metals -- Cell Phone Recycling and Invisible Environmental Impact (September 2006)

The Missing Rare Metals -- Cell Phone Recycling and Invisible Environmental Impact (September 2006)

In 2006, Japan was one of the most popular countries in the world for cell phones, and tens of millions of handsets were being replaced annually as they became more multifunctional and diverse. However, the resulting recycling rate of used handsets was remarkably low, and rare metals, which are valuable resources, were being treated as waste. Gold, palladium, and tantalum are all essential materials for electronic components, but at the time, the recovery rate in Japan was estimated to be less than 20%.

These metals, along with used terminals, were often incinerated as general waste or landfilled after improper treatment, spreading into the environment. As called "urban mines," the reality was that a large amount of rare metals were lying dormant in Japan's cities, but many of them were lost without being reused.

Meanwhile, in Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia, where these metals were mined, mining development was causing deforestation and water pollution. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in particular, tantalum mining was linked to conflict financing, and the problem of "conflict minerals" had also become apparent. In other words, behind the rare metals not recovered in Japan, there existed environmental destruction and humanitarian problems in other countries.

In the mid-2000s, Japanese society was finally becoming a "disposable society, In the mid-2000s, Japanese society was finally beginning to realize the limits of its "disposable society," but the full-scale utilization of urban mines remained a major challenge for the future.