Sustainability Potentials of Informal Gold Recovery from Discarded Mobile Phones: E-waste Management Insights for Global Business and Trade

Purpose - Electronic waste, or e-waste, continues to flourish as a result of exponential growth in technology. The large volume of e-waste generated can be a potential source of resource and energy, hence, providing a complementary means to the primary extraction of minerals such as copper and gold in addition to promoting a circular economic model. In the Philippines, informal gold recovery is one of the sinks for such e-waste. Design/Methodology/Approach - This study evaluated the potentials of informal gold recovery from end-of-life cellular phones from the perspective of environmental soundness and socio-economic viability. It aimed to serve as a baseline measurement of the economic benefits of e-waste material recovery to strengthen the need to establish an effective e-waste management framework and tap its potentials as an emerging sector in the economy. Process-based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted using 100g Au with data collected much earlier. The resulting impacts to human health and the environment were determined following the procedure indicated in ReCiPe (2008). Benefit-cost (BC) ratio was also computed as the measure of economic benefit while, for the social impacts, a criticality score was computed. Findings - Results of the environmental impact assessment showed that informal gold recovery poses a large threat to human health due to the emitted gases. This result is verified by the high risk computed in the social impact assessment contributed primarily by the risk of poisoning, risk of acquiring eye injury and respiratory and nervous system diseases from inhalation of fumes. Nevertheless, the risks were lessened with improvements in the system. A benefit-cost ratio of 1.21 was computed, entailing an economic benefit from this practice, with labor cost contributing the highest. Research Implications - Informal gold recovery is potentially sustainable, but to reap the greatest benefits and reduce the risks, some actions or interventions at the operational and national level are needed, such as usage of less hazardous substances, reduction of labor and protection of workers, utilization of methods engineering to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness, formulation and assessment of national e-wastes inventory, and implementation of an e-waste management system policy to harness global business and trade opportunities.