Xinhuanet, London, May 14 (Reporter Liu Shilei) The information technology revolution has brought earth-shaking positive changes to people's lives, but it has also put the problem of "electronic waste" in front of the world. On the one hand, many waste electronic products are still useful but are abandoned, and on the other hand, many toxic substances in electronic waste have endless environmental hazards.

Electronic waste began to be popular as early as the rise of personal computers. According to a statistic released by the US "Science News" magazine at the end of the last century, there were 1 million personal computers discarded in the UK alone every year, and the number of waste floppy disks thrown away around the world at that time was countless. When added together, a 110-story "skyscraper" could be formed every 21 seconds.

Waste electronic products are not only annoying. If they can be recycled, their economic and environmental value cannot be underestimated. The recycling of metal raw materials such as aluminum, iron, copper, and zinc alone can bring considerable benefits. Taking aluminum as an example, the energy consumed in recycling aluminum is only 5% of the energy consumed in producing aluminum through mining.

The countries that first encountered the problem of electronic waste started to solve it earlier. Driven by economic and environmental factors, countries such as the United Kingdom have already taken action. At present, the recycling and reuse of waste electronic products has formed a complete chain and developed into an important industry in the circular economy. Some companies have also linked the recycling of waste electronic products with charity activities, increasing social benefits while achieving economic benefits.

"Tyr First" is a typical example of many electronic recycling companies in the UK. The company has been established for nearly 10 years and mainly recycles monitors, laptops, etc. The company's warehouse in Manchester can handle 50,000 to 60,000 related electronic devices every year.

The workflow for handling waste electronic products is very strict. First, these electronic devices must be checked, their damage must be assessed, and they must be tested to see if they can still work properly. Then, the memory of those computers that are useful must be cleared to ensure that the information of their original owners is not leaked and that their new owners can use them safely. Finally, these sorted devices are sold through some shopping websites. In addition, some of the devices will be donated to relevant institutions for use.

According to the person in charge of the company, they provide 240 computers with complete accessories every month to a charity called "Computer Assistance", and through this organization, some computers that can still be used are donated to children in developing countries such as Rwanda and Nigeria.

There are many companies like "Tyr First" in the UK. "Computer Assistance" receives millions of "recycled and reused" computers throughout the UK every year.

In addition to computers, with the popularity and continuous acceleration of mobile phones in various countries in recent years, used mobile phones have almost become the "number one source of pollution" in electronic waste.

Because mobile phone parts contain a variety of harmful substances such as lead, cadmium, and mercury, if they are directly discarded, they will seriously pollute the soil and groundwater. The pollution intensity of a used mobile phone battery is 100 times that of an ordinary dry battery, and it can pollute 60,000 liters of water. If the used mobile phones are directly incinerated, the plastic shell will also produce toxic substances such as chlorine-containing carcinogens.

According to statistics, 18 million mobile phones are replaced in the UK every year, which is equivalent to nearly 2,000 mobile phones being eliminated every hour. The UK is one of the first countries to carry out the recycling of discarded mobile phones, and launched a waste mobile phone recycling plan as early as 2002.

Founded in 2004, "fonebak" is currently the largest mobile phone repair and recycling company in the UK. It has offices and mobile phone processing facilities in European countries such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and carries out mobile phone recycling and refurbishment business.

The mobile phone recycling channel provided by this company to customers is extremely convenient. The company has signed an agreement with communication network operators such as Vodafone, and has set up tens of thousands of waste mobile phone collection points through its business offices. It also provides free old mobile phone mailing services through the business outlets of various mobile phone sales companies, so that customers can "casually" mail their old mobile phones to the "fonebak" recycling center after buying a new mobile phone.

In addition, "fonebak" cooperates with more than 600 charities and community groups, and these organizations help collect waste mobile phones. In recent years, the company has also developed online business, providing customers with online evaluation of mobile phone value and other related services.

For old mobile phones that have been used for no more than one and a half years and have normal functions, "fonebak" will generally refurbish them and sell them at about half the price of new phones. To reassure consumers, the company also provides a six-month quality guarantee for refurbished mobile phones. Such mobile phones are very popular with consumers because of their high cost-effectiveness and quality assurance.

For mobile phones that have no refurbishment value, "fonebak" will disassemble them and make the best use of every component and every raw material. For example, plastic parts containing metal are first sent to a special processing plant for combustion, and the heat generated is used for local rural heating; after combustion, metal materials such as platinum, gold, silver, and copper are extracted from them and sent to professional companies for processing and reuse; pure plastic parts are crushed and used to make road traffic signs, toys, etc.; mobile phone batteries are sent to special factories for processing, and lithium and nickel are recycled. For example, nickel can be used to make frying pans, irons, and new batteries.

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