Recycling offensive in Freising: Donate old cell phones for environmental protection!

Recycling offensive in Freising: Donate old cell phones for environmental protection!

In Freising, Bavaria, the environment is the focus of a particularly innovative initiative. The city has launched a recycling program for old cell phones and tablets that aims to not only help reduce electronic waste, but also support important educational projects abroad. This environmentally friendly approach was implemented by the Coordination Office for Municipal Development Policy and the Fair Forum Agenda Group and is already very popular.

There is a “Freddy” collection box in the waiting area of ​​the citizens’ office, where citizens can drop off their old devices. There are a few important tips: Devices with damaged or swollen batteries are not eligible for return, and the memory and SIM cards must be removed before return. Every device brought in is checked for reusability by the inclusion company Jurec-IT before all data is deleted.

Recycling with added value

An exciting detail of the initiative is the direct collaboration with the Aurubis scrap metal smelter in Germany, where valuable precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum are extracted from the old devices. The proceeds from these materials flow into environmental education projects in countries such as Liberia and El Salvador as well as into the “One World Daycare: Fair and Global” project in Bavaria. This means that electronic waste becomes not just garbage, but resources for a sustainable future.

The initiative is part of the broader Bavarian mobile phone campaign, which is coordinated by the “One World” mission and the “One World Network Bavaria”. For anyone who would like to find out more, the website www.handyaktion-bayern.de offers extensive information.

Sustainable gold mining

However, the recovery of precious metals from electronic waste is not only met with new approaches in Freising. According to a report by scinexx.de, there are new research approaches for sustainable gold extraction from electronic waste that do not require harmful chemicals such as cyanide or mercury. The team of researchers works with an innovative process that uses trichloroisocyanuric acid and salt water to efficiently extract gold, copper and zinc.

This environmentally friendly approach has the potential to not only recover valuable materials, but also minimize the negative impacts of traditional gold mining. Tests on ground e-waste revealed that large amounts of gold are stored in the components, with a yield of up to 900 mg gold per kg of scrap.

These synergistic approaches show how recycling can lead to a fairer and more sustainable use of raw materials not only in the city of Freising, but also in research. While environmentally friendly actions become more important, each individual can make a big contribution to a better future with small steps - such as handing in old devices.