Japan is a country that is very good at using high technology to achieve waste recycling and remanufacturing - it can be said to be one of the countries with the highest global waste recycling rates.
The recycling and reuse of old mobile phones is an issue that modern society cannot avoid. Japan's performance in this area once again leads the world - the "old mobile phone mining industry" is emerging in Japan. It is reported that using modern technology, at least 150 grams of gold can be extracted from one ton of old mobile phones, while only 5 grams can be extracted from each ton of gold ore, which is more than 30 times the difference.
Yokohama Metal Co., Ltd. of Japan has found through research that in addition to extracting 150 grams of gold from a ton of discarded mobile phones, at least 100 kilograms of copper and 3 kilograms of silver can also be extracted.
If gold is calculated at 200 yuan per gram, it is 30,000 yuan.
If silver is calculated at 3400 yuan per kilogram, 3 kilograms are worth more than 10,000 yuan.
And if 100 kilograms of copper is calculated at market price, it is also more than 6000 yuan.
The total value of these three main metals, plus other metals, should be close to 50,000 yuan.
If this 50,000 yuan is averaged out, 50,000/1000, it is fifty yuan per kilogram.
It is reported that the Japanese "Ecosystem" recycling company produces 200 to 300 kilograms of gold bars every month, with a purity as high as 99.99%, valued at 5.9 million to 8.8 million US dollars, equivalent to the output of a small gold mine - and this does not include the value of other metals.
Japan's level of electronic manufacturing can be said to be the highest in the world, and it is precisely Japan's scarce natural resources "inherent conditions" that "force" Japanese companies to vigorously develop electronic product recycling technology.
However, although the technology for recycling old mobile phones is so advanced, it is not easy to recycle mobile phones in Japan. Many people are unwilling to hand over their old mobile phones to recycling stations due to concerns about personal data leakage. Therefore, despite Japan's extremely high mobile phone penetration rate, on average everyone changes their mobile phone every two years and eight months, but only 10% to 20% of mobile phones are recycled. Data shows that from March 2006 to March 2007, Japan only recycled 558 tons of discarded mobile phones. Because of this, those Japanese companies engaged in the recycling and reuse of electronic products, despite their developed business acumen, have no choice but to bring old integrated circuit boards home from places like Singapore and Indonesia.
Mobile phone recycling process: detach components that can be directly reused and sell them directly (this part of the money may even be more than metal recycling). Then manually disassemble the fragments, immerse them in chemicals to remove unnecessary metal impurities, extract, melt, etc., cast into finished metal products such as gold bars, and finally sell them to electronic manufacturers, jewelers, etc. Of course, mobile phones are just one source of supply for such factories - the real big ones are things like old computer motherboards - the recycling price is cheaper.
Commentary: The reason why Japan's waste recycling and reuse industry is developed is mainly due to the scarcity of its domestic resources - serious resource and geopolitical crises force them to "think hard". This is also one of the reasons why Japanese companies are so powerful. In comparison, our country's industry lags far behind - very few entrepreneurs consider the problems of resource depletion and waste reuse.
Why? It's all due to subconscious thinking - China is vast and rich in resources, we have everything.
Only when we reach the end of our resources will some obese, greedy Chinese businessmen realize - across the vast expanse of Huaxia, we already have no retreat.