bswartzwelder
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2011
- Messages
- 660
In another thread, Arthur_Kierski stated that he gets about 10 grams of silver from 35 to 40 cell phones. I believe he said the silver was mostly from the screens. I have "deconstructed" probably thousands of cell phones. Most of the screens have a front protective plastic (sometimes glass) plate, then a glass plate underneath with a connector attached to it, then up to 7 to 9 more layers of what appears to be plastic, mylar, and other materials. If Arthur is still around, or if anyone else knows the answer, is the silver etched onto the glass screen with the connector attached, or is it in one of the other layers? If it's in one of the other layers, how can you determine which one?
I have saved the glass screens with the connector removed from many hundreds of cell phones. I don't know why, I just thought they might be interesting to look at sometime and maybe the connector area might contain valuables. I hope I didn't inadvertently throw away the pieces which had the silver.
I have also been saving all the batteries from the cell phones. Once I remove the circuit board, I short out the cell with a pair of pliers. If it produces any heat, I will continue to short it out for no more than 10 to 15 seconds 3 or 4 times a day until it no longer produces any heat. I reasoned that if you remove the outer insulating materials and the circuit board from the battery and just toss it into a collection bucket, it is possible for a charged battery to come to rest against the uninsulated side of another battery. This could cause problems as a fully charged battery could build up quite a lot of heat.
Until recently, I took the discarded batteries to Radio Shack where they will accept them (for free) and send them out for processing. The company Radio Shack sends the batteries to provides Radio Shack with pre-addressed, postage paid boxes and Radio Shack provides this service as a public service to the people of the community to help keep things like batteries out of our land fills. Once the contacts and circuit boards have been removed, is there anything else worth processing? I assume the people Radio Shack sends them to recovers the lithium where it is made into little pills to treat bi-polar disorders brought on by your children, or the over usage of cell phones. As I age, I swear, I might be in need of some of those little pills. Presently, I have almost a full 5 gallon bucket of the little buggers, but am not yet ready to munch on them (with or without salt and pepper).
Somehow, I double posted this message, so I deleted the other copy of it.
I have saved the glass screens with the connector removed from many hundreds of cell phones. I don't know why, I just thought they might be interesting to look at sometime and maybe the connector area might contain valuables. I hope I didn't inadvertently throw away the pieces which had the silver.
I have also been saving all the batteries from the cell phones. Once I remove the circuit board, I short out the cell with a pair of pliers. If it produces any heat, I will continue to short it out for no more than 10 to 15 seconds 3 or 4 times a day until it no longer produces any heat. I reasoned that if you remove the outer insulating materials and the circuit board from the battery and just toss it into a collection bucket, it is possible for a charged battery to come to rest against the uninsulated side of another battery. This could cause problems as a fully charged battery could build up quite a lot of heat.
Until recently, I took the discarded batteries to Radio Shack where they will accept them (for free) and send them out for processing. The company Radio Shack sends the batteries to provides Radio Shack with pre-addressed, postage paid boxes and Radio Shack provides this service as a public service to the people of the community to help keep things like batteries out of our land fills. Once the contacts and circuit boards have been removed, is there anything else worth processing? I assume the people Radio Shack sends them to recovers the lithium where it is made into little pills to treat bi-polar disorders brought on by your children, or the over usage of cell phones. As I age, I swear, I might be in need of some of those little pills. Presently, I have almost a full 5 gallon bucket of the little buggers, but am not yet ready to munch on them (with or without salt and pepper).
Somehow, I double posted this message, so I deleted the other copy of it.
