Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging in Freising
Development of the most effective recycling methods is one of the key fields of activity at Teqcycle. After all, there are more than 86 million old mobile phones in Germany and a recycling quota of 90 percent. New methods for treating and stripping plastics have been tested in collaboration with the Frauenhofer IVV in Freising.
Critical raw materials in old mobile phones – recyclable content and processing for chemical analysis (Bavarian Environment Agency LfU in Augsburg)
Electronic devices and in particular mobile phones contain a variety of recyclable materials that, in the past, could not be recovered at the end of their useful life. The recycling quotas prescribed in the German Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (ElektroG, ) are achieved by recovering plastics, aluminium and iron. However, many valuable raw materials present in the devices are lost to the recovered substance cycle. Numerous studies have been carried out on the scarcity of "critical raw materials" (e.g. [2, 3, 4]). According to [5, 6] the rare earth metals and the platinum group elements are especially relevant for the Bavarian economy in general and for the automotive industry and manufacturers of electric motors in particular. Bismuth, cobalt, germanium, indium, copper, lithium and tin are also of great importance (cf. Tab. A-1 in the Appendix). According to  mobile phones contain – not only plastics – but above all silicon (25 %), iron (21 %), aluminium (14 %), copper (7 %), lead (6 %), zinc (2 %) and tin (1 %) …
Workshop IASS Potsdam and Wuppertal Institute in Potsdam
Worldwide there are 6.4 billion registered mobile phones and approximately seven billion inhabitants. And at the moment there's no sign of an end to the mobile phone boom. However, according to estimates by BITKOM, in Germany alone between 83 and 86 million phones are lying around unused in drawers. This trend is coupled with rapidly rising consumption of power and resources. More than 60 raw materials are used in a mobile phone. But the recycling rate worldwide is very low. This was the starting point for the research project entitled "Return and recycling of used mobile phones" launched by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) Potsdam and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (project management). Sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and in conjunction with other partners in politics, industry and research, a study was conducted as part of the Ministry's Science Year 2012 on how young people use mobile phones.