Taller ELECTRONICS UNCHAINED: FAIRPHONE'S URBAN MINING WORKSHOP

Cell phones are full of different metals. In particular copper, aluminum, iron and nickel, but also gold, silver, tantalum, mercury, lead and a few dozen other ones.

Miquel Ballester, Co-founder and resource efficiency manager at Fairphone will facilitate this workshop and explain how Fairphone is addressing, tackling and solving one step at a time the problems related to the responsible sourcing of this materials, as well as how to reuse and recycle them. Through this interactive workshops you will learn more about the topic in an interactive way and  get to know your phones from the inside.

Electronics contain a hidden wealth of valuable resources. Numerous raw materials are used in our mobile phones, but also in computers, laptops and tablets. It is usually not possible to trace exactly where the raw materials come from or under what circumstances they were extracted. After use, much discarded electronics disappear to Asia and Africa, where only the most valuable raw materials are recovered in often primitive ways.

Cell phones are full of different metals. In particular copper, aluminum, iron and nickel, but also gold, silver, tantalum, mercury, lead and a few dozen other substances. Cell phones also contain hundreds of different substances that change per series as technology evolves. Every company ensures that its production methods are not known.

200 mobile phones contain enough gold for one wedding ring. Around 93% of a cell phone can be recycled. Urban Mining is the recovery of raw materials from electronic products, preferably on a local basis. This process is even easier than extracting the same metals through traditional mining. Namely, 20 tons more gold can be obtained from a ton of mobile phones than from a ton of gold ore that comes out of the ground.

The Fairphone company tries to address, tackle and solve the problems related to e-waste. They have therefore developed this workshop, which explains more about the topic in an interactive way and we get to know our phones from the inside. In the average Dutch household there are three old mobile phones in the drawer that are no longer being used. Under the guidance of workshop leader Jonah Link (Metabolic / The True North) we are going to tear apart our old cell phones together on this day and investigate and learn what is in it about metals and recyclable parts.

Bring your own:

- Old cell phone (smartphone not required)

- Possibly small screwdrivers or other tools

Miquel Ballester, Co-founder and resource efficiency manager at Fairphone. After graduating in Industrial Design Engineering specializing in technologies for sustainable development, Miquel became part of Fairphone's founding team and has been involved in both on organizational product strategy over these years.