Recycling old smartphones is not only good for the environment – it is a potentially lucrative business for e-waste companies in China

China was once a dumping ground for the world’s discarded electronics, with thousands of workshops disassembling old computers to extract materials to recycle. The value of metals discarded as electronic waste in China is forecast to be worth US$23.8bil by 2030. — SCMP

Like many Chinese millennials, 24-year-old Lin Chenru likes to upgrade his mobile phone every couple of years – just don’t ask him where his old devices are.

“I think they’re still in my room, but I don’t know exactly where,” Lin said. “I don’t throw away my old phones when I get a new one but as time goes by, I don’t pay much attention to it.”