Olympics is a long-running athletic event which is over a century old. The event is generally believed to be the pinnacle of all sporting events and hosts a myriad of different competitions that have the worlds best athletes compete against each other whilst representing their respective nations. In the event, the contestants strive to show the result of their years of hard training in front of a global audience. The top honour for the event is the legendary gold medal. Surprisingly, for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, these prestigious badges will be made from precious metals recovered from recycled smartphones.

Smartphones are known to house over hundreds of tiny [...]

Staying true to its promise made in March, Samsung will recycle parts from then recalled exploding Note 7 devices . Sales of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 were suspended last year, due to the poorly manufactured batteries. As stated in the reports released in March, Samsung has recently released refurbished Galaxy Note 7 FE in Korea. Even with all the refurbished handsets for sale, Samsung will still be left with the heaps of devices to recycle.

Samsung will kick start its phone recycling process this month and is expected to recover 157 tonnes of rare metals like gold, cobalt and copper. Samsung also plans on utilising the existing parts  like OLED display modules, memory chips, [...]

Apple has run its recycling program for a very long time and users often return their old beat down phones to Apple in efforts to properly dispose of the ruined smartphone. Apple’s latest Environmental Responsibility Report (PDF) shows that it recovered 89 million pounds of materials in its recycling program last year, including $40 million worth of gold.

Gold is used in many Apple portable components and circuit boards because “it has low electrical resistance and, unlike copper, doesn’t corrode.” This adds to the efficiency of the product and if recycled properly can save the wastage of the precious material.

Apple has already shown off its interests in [...]