Global Smartphones

Failed to add items

Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping basket is already at capacity.

Add to cart failed.

Please try again later

Add to wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Remove from wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Follow podcast failed

Unfollow podcast failed

Global Smartphones

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

Remember the periodic table from high school? Neither do I! But about three-quarters of the elements are inside your smartphone, from minerals mined all over the world. The glass on the front is a special hardened type. It’s made of quartz, which may have come from the USA, and aluminum, which probably came from Australia. It’s then treated with potassium salts, likely from Canada. For scratch resistance, it’s given a coating, made of iridium from South Korea and tin from Indonesia. The colors on its screen come from rare earth elements, mostly from China. Its microelectronics could include copper from Chile, silver from Mexico, platinum from South Africa, and tungsten from Russia. Its tiny capacitors use tantalum from central Africa or Brazil. Your phone’s rechargeable battery is made of lithium, which may have come from Argentina; cobalt from the Congo or Zambia; and pure graphite from India. Petroleum, from many sources around the world, is used to ship all these minerals to factories, where they’re assembled into parts, then shipped again to be assembled into phones. If supplies of any of these elements, from any of these countries, were to be restricted, it could disrupt the price and availability of the phones that billions of us rely on. There are also serious environmental impacts to mining these minerals. Recycling the billions of old phones will ensure we have materials available for new ones.

No reviews yet