Links and Other Material

This page contains links and resources found on the Internet about recycling, e-waste, mining and extraction.

Some sources might be more reliable than others: please double-check content and information before re-using it.

If citing the material, use the linked source (e.g. BBC). You might also mention you found the information on the Replay website.

If you are aware of any other link, please let us know (see the Contacts page).

Video recording of the RePlay Events held at Muse

Recordings of the events held Muse, the Science Museum of Trento, Italy (videos in Italian).

Related Projects

This is a list of projects related to Replay:

E-Mining @ School, contains information about raw materials in a smartphone, a web-based game we run in 2018 (requires to be configured: if you are interested, get in touch). The goal of the project is training and engaging students in schools in reusing and recycling phones. During the project we run an international competition in which students collected old phones for reuse and recycling. More than 5 tons of materials were collected.
AWARE has the goal of training teachers and university students on circular economy and WEEEs. On the project website you can find materials in different languages for teachers and students of different degrees, from elementary up to secondary school.
RePlay has the goal of training scientific communicators and stage events and exhibitions in the participating Museums (MuSe, Museon, Heureka).

General Introduction to Circular Economy

A nice introduction to circular economy from the EU:

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/infographics/circulareconomy/public/index.html

Interactive Experiences

Materials Matter is an interactive experience prepared by Restart Replay
Compute your e-Footprint: compute your electronic footprint and compare it with that of your peers, according to the Globale E-waste Monitor 2020
Project 3D-Briefcase (Gomez Pardo Foundation - ES) mostly for kids 6-14 yrs and teachers
Project BETTER GEO EDU (Swedish Geological Survey - SE) mostly for kids 6-10 yrs
The 3R Song: https://www.youtube.com/embed/qtyBzFV9yTs
The 3R Rap: https://www.youtube.com/embed/908b9t2275E

Life WEEE project - Playground@school educational kit

- Life Weee project aims to increase and improve the collection of WEEE in Tuscany and in Andalusia.

Playground@school, a project carried out within the Life framework has created an educational kit about WEEE, treasures to be recovered. The kit consists of a booklet with ideas for teachers and a board game ready to be printed (board, rules and solutions, contingency and chance cards). It can be used at school by teachers and at home by parents and older primary and early middle school pupils (8-13 years).

Videos About Mining

Burkina Faso Gold Mining - UNICEF: https://www.youtube.com/embed/zmkR_EyRf9A
Burkina Faso Gold Mining - PBS: https://www.youtube.com/embed/rXWJboI02kY
Cobalt Mining in Congo (France 24): https://www.youtube.com/embed/ll7aUgeK3-o
The Cobalt Pipeline
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/congo-cobalt-mining-for-lithium-ion-battery/
- http://fact.international/2016/10/the-cobalt-pipeline-the-washington-post-investigates-exploitation-system-in-congo/

Videos about Producing Electronic Equipments

e-Waste Collection

Gui Yu (run on RAI5 - in Italian): https://www.youtube.com/embed/s8pXUrXpj7I
Agbobloshie (RT Documentary): https://www.youtube.com/embed/mleQVO1Vd1I
India (France 24): https://www.youtube.com/embed/Of2-mz96tUQ

Good Practices

Recycling Electronics

Videos produced by Relight, an Italian factory recycling electronics:

Urban mining

A 7 minutes clip on Urban Mining and recycling old electronics. Shot in Finland for kids in elementary school.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/KBPde_fK6sU

Tips and Tricks from Electro Recycling hero

Three short clips in English about recycling. For kids.

Applied Research

Example of Recovering HDDs

https://www.inemi.org/blog/hard-drives-from-hard-drives-0

EcoInvent Database

It is difficult to know what materials electronics is made of (list of materials in microchip not known or not disclosed, electronics evolve fast).

The ecoinvent database provides well documented process data for thousands of products, helping you make truly informed choices about their environmental impact.

https://www.ecoinvent.org/database/database.html

Reports and Documents

Newspapers and Newsletters

The Guardian, Toxic 'e-waste' dumped in poor nations, says United Nations
The Smithsonian, The Burning Truth Behind an e-Waste Dump in Africa
The Guardian, Children as young as seven mining cobalt used in smartphones, says Amnesty
Stanford Law School, Cost of recycling, E-WASTE: a bigger problem than you think A single computer in the United States costs $20 to safely dispose. In India, however, this same computer will cost $2 to be [un]safely disposed
Internazionale (in Italian): https://www.internazionale.it/webdoc/ewaste-republic/
According to this report of the CBC, misleading information about recycling plastic increased plastic consumption with an overall environment negative impact: Recycling was a lie — a big lie — to sell more plastic, industry experts say.

Reports

WEEEs are piling up in (our) homes (World Economic Forum)
ITU report on e-waste: E-waste monitor 2020 (and the 2017 version, Global e-Waste Monitor).
United Nations University, The Global E-waste Monitor 2017 Quantities, Flows, and Resources
Step Initiative, http://www.step-initiative.org/white-and-green-papers.html (various reports)
Öko Institute, Recycling critical raw materialsfrom waste electronic equipment, explains practices for recyling raw materials (2012)
Ellen McArthur Foundation: Circular Economy Hub

Government Policies and Information

EU Science HUB, Raw material information system
FDA on fish https://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm393070.htm and https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/UCM536321.pdf In synthesis: do not eat big fish if you are pregnant or a child, unless you like a diet containing an anomalous quantities of heavy metals.

Pilots and Research Initiatives

Incentive Based Collection of E-Waste in Ghana describes a pilot run in Ghana to improved collection and recycling of cables.

Random bits of information

Here you can find random bits of information mainly taken during the Green Care Conference in 2018.

Use and read with caution: it is better to double check what you read here!

BIR - Bureaus of Recycling

http://www.bir.org/industry/ferrous-metals/?locale=en_US

According to industry estimates, paper can be recycled an average of 4 to 6 times. Each time recycling occurs, the fibres become shorter and weaker and virgin pulp must be introduced into paper production to maintain the strength and quality of the fibre. Through this process, recovered paper and forest-based product complement each other ecologically and economically.

Unlike metals, recycling usually affects the physical properties of plastics to some extent. This makes it difficult to recover large amounts of certain types of plastics for use in the same applications that they were originally produced for. Thanks to intensive research and technological developments made by recycling companies, recycled plastic can be used in almost as many applications and products as those using virgin materials.

We now use about 20 times more plastic than we did 50 years ago and certain post-consumer products contain as many as 20 different types of plastic materials.

Tyres are one of the most versatile recycled materials and are used as fuel or for numerous innovative applications, such as construction and civil engineering.

The electronics recycling industry in the USA alone is worth more than US$ 20bn and processes over 4m tonnes each year, providing direct and indirect employment for 45,000-plus people. Recycling copper uses much less energy, about 10 million Btu/tonne, than the energy required to extract copper from copper ore at about 95 million Btu/tonne. Recycling copper saves up to 85% of the energy used in primary production, and so by using copper scrap, we reduce CO2 emissions by 65% Recycling one tonne of steel saves 1,100 kilograms of iron ore, 630 kilograms of coal, and 55 kilograms of limestone. One tonne of recycled aluminium saves up to 8,000 kilograms of bauxite, 14,000 kWh of energy, 40 barrels (6300 litres) of oil, 238 million Btu's of energy. Recycling 1 tonne of aluminium avoids the emission of about 9 tonnes of CO2 emissions as recycling aluminium uses 95% less energy than producing aluminium using raw materials. Recycling one tonne of tin saves 99% of the energy required for the primary production of tin.

Raw Materials in iPhones

Source: Green Care Conf 2018

For every 100.000 devices

Element	Kgs/10.000 devices
Aluminum	1900kg
Gold	0.97kg
Silver	7.5kg
Rare earth elements	11kg
Tungsten	93kg
Copper	710kg
Palladium	0.10kg
Tin	42kg
Cobalt	770kg
Tantalium	1.8kg

Raw Materials cell phones

EPA Data

For every 1 million devices (original data in pounds).

Element	Pounds/1M devices	Kgs/1M devices
Copper	35274	16000.018
Silver	772	350.17333
Gold	75	34.01943
Palladium	33	14.968549

Elements in a Smartphone

Source: Oko-Institut 2016

Material	Quantity	MU	Where
Aluminum	22.16	g	Case
Copper	15.12	g	Wires, shielding, PCB, speakers, vibration
Plastics	9.53	g	Case
Magnesium	5.54	g	Case
Cobalt	5.38	g	Battery
Tin	1.21	g	Solder past
Iron	0.88	g	Case
Tungsten	0.44	g	Vibration alarm
Silver	0.31	g	Soldier paste, PCB
Neodymium	0.05	g	Magnets of speakers
Gold	0.03	g	Electronic components, PCB
Tantalum	0.02	g	Capacitors
Palladium	0.01	g	Electronic components, PCB
Praseodymium	0.01	g	Magnets of speakers
Indum	0.01	g	Display
Yttrium	0.0004	g	LED-backlights
Gallium	0.0004	g	LED-backlights
Gadolinium	0.0002	g	LED-backlights
Europium	0.0001	g	LED-backlights
Cerium	0.00003	g	LED-backlights
Others	99.29	g	Glass, ceramics, semiconductors

Carbon Footprint of a Fairphone