3.2 Recycling
The data in Table 2 show average revenue and cost (in 2006 dollar) per handset as they are reported from one e-waste recycler in the UK in 2003 (Else Refining) and one in the US in 2006 (ECS Refining) [5, 6]. Both show small profit margins of roughly $0.5, which means that efficiency and economies of scale are critical to ensure profitability.
However, cell phones are not an important source of income for e-waste recyclers, since they process many types of electronic waste, with cell phones being only a small portion of their business. These recyclers also only consolidate and pre-process electronic waste and then send it to primary metal smelters and refineries, like Boliden or Xstrata, for the actual metal recovery.