What are mobile phones and computers made from?

Our electronic devices such as smart phones and computers are made up of glass, plastic and metal.

Many of these include valuable metals like gold and platinum.

This makes recycling electricals complicated because these materials need to be separated.

Read our blog post about the sustainability of smartphones here.

Discover

Reduce

Find out how to reduce electrical waste

Reuse

Find out reuse old electronics

Recycle

Find out about electrical recycling

Activities

3Rs Activities at Home: A Great Electrical Treasure Hunt

29 June 2020/by Lucy Mottram

Electrical Equipment Worksheets

Electrical Equipment Worksheets KS1

Electrical Equipment Worksheets KS2

Electrical Equipment Worksheets KS3/4

Global Issues

Climate Change
Sustainable Development Goals
Circular Economy
If you keep your phone for five years instead of two or three, the carbon emissions and the impact of water usage per year are cut by 50% or more.
Globally, e-waste constitutes more than 5 percent of all municipal solid waste and is increasing with the rise of sales of electronic products in developing countries.
You can power a laptop for up to 44 hours with the energy saved from recycling a single mobile phone.
A ton of used mobile phones, or approximately 6,000 handsets, contains about 3.5 kg of silver, 340 grams of gold, 140 grams of palladium, and 130 kg of copper
When you add up the energy usage during the whole lifecycle of a computer with a 17 inch monitor, you find most (81%) is used during manufacturing, not using the computer.
The manufacturing of a computer and its screen takes at least 240 kg of fossil fuels, 22 kg of chemicals and 1.5 tonnes of water - more than the weight of a rhinoceros or a car