Analysis of the influence of mobile phones' material composition on the economic profitability of their manual dismantling
Open accessAbstract
This work presents a systematic characterisation of 100 waste mobile phones (73 feature phones and 23 smartphones) produced between 1989 and 2016. All items were inventoried and the evolvement of the relative abundances of their macro-components (mechanic and electro-mechanic parts, electronics and others) and materials was investigated. The average lifetime was 15.1 years for feature phones and 6.4 years for smartphones. The main component was plastic, on average 46%-wt. in feature phones and 37%-wt. in smartphones; over the years electronics' and plastic's amounts decreased (respectively 80% and 70%), while metal components' amount increased (12%). A cost-benefit analysis explored the profitability of the management of waste mobile phones through manual dismantling followed by the sale of the separated components and materials. The average cost of manual dismantling was estimated as 6.93 € per item according to EU average labour costs and 1.50 € per item based on minimum EU labour costs. According to the performed economic analysis, the actual market prices for the potentially recoverable materials and components of waste mobile phones were not able (particularly mixed plastics) to counterbalance the costs of manual dismantling according to the European standard labour costs.
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End-of-life management generally contributes only a relatively small proportion to total life cycle impact compared to the manufacturing stage.
“Finally, although EoL management is crucial for resource recovery and for mitigating hazardous emissions such as landfill leachate (Forti et al. 2020), it generally contributes only a relatively small proportion to the total life cycle impact compared to the manufacturing stage (He et al. 2020;Bruno et al. 2022).”
From Integrating Life Cycle Assessment, Monetised Externalities and Value Alignment for Strategic Reconfiguration of Circular Business Models: The Case of Smartphones (2026) · cites this paper as Bruno et al. 2022
The available passage on manual dismantling discusses material recovery and labour costs, not life-cycle impacts. Searches for end-of-life impacts relative to manufacturing found no passage in our copy that makes that comparison. (LLM, conf=0.74)
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An exploratory study of e-waste creation and disposal: upstream considerations
Shaikh, S., Thomas, K., & Zuhair, S. (2020) · Resources, Conservation and Recycling · doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104662 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
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Rittershaus, P., Aryan, V., Sánchez, D., Renner, M., & Poeppelbuss, J. (2026) · Business Strategy and the Environment · doi:10.1002/bse.70271 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bruno, M., Sotera, L., & Fiore, S.
- Affiliations
- Politecnico di Torino (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Fiore, Silvia
- Venue
- Journal of Environmental Management
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-05
- Volume
- 309
- Pages
- 114677
- ISSN
- 0301-4797 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4211149868
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3
- FWCI
- 2.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Environmental Management (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PORTO@Iris (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Recycling and Waste Management Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Extraction and Separation Processes
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Municipal Solid Waste Management
- Keywords
- mobile phone waste, manual dismantling, feature phones, smartphones, material composition, plastic content, metal content, cost-benefit analysis, economic profitability, recovered materials, labor costs, e-waste recycling, mixed plastic waste
- MeSH terms
- Metals, Plastics, Cell Phone, Recycling, Electronic Waste
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