Rare Earth Elements

Rare Earth Elements

The Rare Earth Elements section consists of 17 metals. The reason behind this section's name is because all the elements in this section are not rare but they are spread all across the world, making them harder to mine and collect in one spot. Most of these elements are not found in their pure or concentrated form so they have to undergo some manual procedures to extract their pure form. However, small bits of bits of other elements can be added to the original rare earth elements to make them more durable and solid for physical usage.

Rare earth elements play a big role in making up a phone. However, this creates a problem because rare earth elements are not renewable and nowadays phones are being used everywhere, hence new ones are always being created. By renewable, it is implied that rare earth elements will eventually run out as more cannot be created and there are no means of their natural growth.

This is not the only problem. These precious elements that make up our phones are going to waste. Many people do not bother to recycle their phones; they just throw them out and buy new ones. These elements then cannot be retrieved as they end up in landfill as e-waste.