Japan Firm to Extract Metals from Used Cell Phones
The project is in collaboration with Geneva's Secretariat of the Basel Convention. The Secretariat of the Basel Convention's objectives is to reduce transboundary movements of hazardous waste and dispose of this wastes to as close as possible to their source of generation. The Secretariat also aims to control the movement of hazardous wastes across borders and to prevent illegal traffic.
The Dowa group of companies is known to have the latest technology to extract nonferrous metals from electric and electronic parts. The company has the only smelter in Asia that is capable of separating metals from ores that contain more than one metal like lead, copper, or gold. Currently, Dowa's DOWA Eco-System Co., Ltd is in charge of the company's resource recycling and the company can recycle as many as 17 different metallic elements using their highly advanced metallurgical technologies. Metals from CPUs, Compact Discs, connectors, circuit boards, and metal scraps can be extracted to form the 17 different metallic elements like Gold, Silver, and Copper. The recovered materials can be brought back to society as new products like accessories, electric substrates, films, electrical wires, etc.
According to Yomiuri Shimbun, mobile phone contains nonferrous metal like gold and copper for making substrates. In Southeast Asia, used cell phones are recycled and brought to China but in many instances, only precious metals are recycled and the hazardous substance are left in the phones to be disposed of as ordinary waste.
Concerned with the spread of these harmful substances, the Secretariat of Basel Convention had asked the DOWA group of companies, through Japan's Environment Ministry to help collect the used mobile phones. DOWA's first step is collect mobile phones from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, and the company together with the Secretariat has been researching methods to collect and import the mobile phones.
The process of extracting the metals from the used mobile phones includes crushing the phones and putting them into a furnace to collect nonferrous metals such as gold, lead and copper. Arsenic, one of the harmful substance that will be separated through this process will be buried in the company's smelter's final disposal area.
SOURCE:
The Yomiuri Shimbun, Dowa to extract metals from used cell phones. URL: (http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/20070805TDY01003.htm)
Published by Natalie Sod
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