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What’s inside a smartphone isn’t just plastic and glass. Find out which components make it tick, and why it matters.
Written by Sneha Kashyap, Content and PR Executive | Conscious Consumption and Tech Trends
Last updated on 8 October 2026
Our phones are modern marvels - compact, powerful, and sadly, harmful to our environment if disposed of irresponsibly.
The average person checks their phone 58 times a day. That’s roughly every 16.5 minutes while we’re awake.
It's safe to say that we're dependent on our phones. However, most of us probably don't even know which Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) are used to make them. The fact that our phones are incredibly smart and capable of doing things unimaginable to us 10 years ago, you'd think we would stop treating them as so disposable.
In this article, we'll go over:
The Issue With Raw Materials Supplies: Find out how consumers are kept in the dark about the manufacturing of their mobile phones.
Which Rare Ingredients Are Inside our Phones? Most of us are not aware of the valuable materials packed inside our mobile phones and here's why you should know.
The Critical Raw Materials Challenge: Why these materials matter and what the EU is doing about them.
What Are Apple, Samsung, and Google Doing? A manufacturer-by-manufacturer look at eco-initiatives.
The Problem: Learn about the evidence surrounding the supply and demand of the rare materials within our mobile phones.
Here's What We Can Do: How to reduce your footprint and recycle responsibly.
You’ve probably never seen a phone ad that says “Now made with 0.034g of gold and a touch of indium lung disease!” But that’s the truth.
Modern smartphones are built from a cocktail of 62 different metals, including many that are non-renewable and critically endangered, according to Yale researchers.
Here’s a look at some of the essential, and problematic, materials found inside your phone:
Smartphones come with touchscreens that are convenient and easy to use, allowing more room on screen to watch videos and deliver bezel-less designs. The high conductivity of Indium Tin Oxide is what makes it perfect for touch screen application. The ITO substance is made into a film screen that conducts electricity whilst being completely see-through. This makes our screens responsive to our finger taps and gestures, allowing us to see content without interruptions.
The value of this rare raw material is approximately £700 per kilogram. The mining process of indium is very harmful to eco-systems, to people involved and causes health issues such as Indium lung disease. Indium is a by-product of zinc mining, so its availability is closely linked to zinc production. As its supply is limited, recovery and recycling can help reduce pressure on primary sources.
The long run-time of this component makes it a crucial material for smartphone batteries and gives our devices the juice to operate. Layered with cobalt, lithium-ion batteries can be recharged and deliver high energy density.
With smartphones packing even bigger batteries exceeding 3,000 mAh, the demand for lithium is rising. The mining process endangers access and supply of water to local communities, causes pollution and releases toxic elements resulting in social and environmental consequences.
This element is included in our phone screens and is vital in the making of silicon chips which power our 6-inch devices. Silicon has super powers; it is what lets our phone work as a mini-computer. It has the ability to conduct electricity under certain conditions and can function as an insulator under others.
Without silicon mining, most of the digital devices we use everyday wouldn’t be possible. However, long-term exposure to silica dust means that workers who mine for crystalline silica are at risk of developing lung diseases such as silicosis, lung cancer, and chronic bronchitis. Silicon mines also emit crystalline silica into the air, posing a threat to animals and natural habitats due to their harmful effects.
These elements are primarily used in wiring and composing micro-electrical components. Together with other minerals such as palladium and platinum, these minerals are used in the electrical circuits of phones. For instance, a single iPhone alone uses roughly around 0.034g of gold, 0.34g of silver, 0.015g of palladium, 25g of aluminium and around 15g of copper.
A tough challenge lies ahead of us: demand for copper is expected to grow while developing new sources can take time and comes with environmental impacts. As consumers, we can do our bit by keeping our phones for longer and trading them in once we’ve upgraded, as recycled copper helps reduce the need for newly mined material.
Without nickel and coatings, assembling a smartphone just wouldn't be possible. This metal is essential for lead-free solder and the prevention of corrosion. Without it, our phones would quickly become a useless piece of electronic junk.
With the use of mines, power plants, and trash incinerators, nickel is released into the air and settles onto the ground or falls down after interaction with rain. A high concentration of nickel in soil harms plants and if it contaminates water, it will reduce the growth rate of algae.
In May 2024, the EU introduced the Critical Raw Materials (CRM) Act, aiming to reduce dependence on imported materials and ensure a more secure, sustainable supply of essential resources.
CRM Act 2030 Goals:
✅ 10% of critical raw materials should be sourced domestically
✅ 40% must be processed within the EU
✅ 25% of critical raw materials should come from recycled sources
Why does this matter? Phones contain many critical raw materials, including cobalt, lithium, rare earth elements, and tungsten. The only way to meet these targets is by collecting more e-waste and investing in recycling technologies.
Less than one quarter (22.3%) of global e-waste is recycled in an environmentally sound manner. That means 80% of valuable metals are lost, buried in landfills, or sitting unused in drawers.
And this is where smaller electronics, i.e. fast tech, matter too. A phone may be relatively small, but it sits within a much bigger stream of small electrical and electronic products - from charging cables and adapters to earphones and other accessories. These items can easily be forgotten in drawers or thrown away when they stop working, even though they contain materials that can be recovered.
Not all tech giants are equal when it comes to sustainability. Here’s a breakdown of what the major players are doing:
Uses 100% recycled rare earth elements in the magnets of iPhones.
Includes 100% recycled cobalt in its battery.
Pledged to be carbon neutral across its supply chain by 2030.
Designs devices with disassembly in mind to make recycling easier.
Apple is leading the industry in recycled material use, especially in reuse of cobalt, tungsten, and rare earth metals.
Introduced 100% recycled aluminium in the housing.
Committed to using at least 50% recycled plastic in all hardware products.
Developing AI-driven sustainability tools to optimise energy use.
Google is making improvements, but it needs more transparency and measurable goals.
Increased use of recycled plastic and metals in Galaxy S and Z series.
Committed to incorporating at least one recycled material in every module of every mobile product by 2030.
Repurposed discarded fishing nets and is expanding take-back programmes globally.
Samsung has made progress, but it’s still catching up with Apple in using recycling metals in hardware designs.
Unfortunately, the supply of these raw materials is not infinite. The fact that our phones pack critically rare elements as well as less valuable ones like copper, means we are running out of both categories of metal faster than we thought.
Demand for many of the materials used in electronics is increasing, while developing new sources of supply can be environmentally damaging, expensive and time-consuming. The challenge isn't simply that we are about to “run out” of metals; it is also about maintaining secure supplies while reducing the environmental and social impacts of extraction.
That makes the materials already inside our phones increasingly valuable at the end of a device's life. Recycling and recovering these materials can help keep resources in circulation rather than relying entirely on new extraction.
Most of us are probably thinking that someone in a lab will figure out a solution soon enough. But as cliché as it sounds, why can't that someone be us?
If we want to reduce the environmental impact of the technology we rely on, keeping products in use for longer and recovering their materials at the end of their life both matter. Critical raw materials are needed for many of the components found in modern electronics, including batteries, displays and chips.
So, what are we going to do? Go back to writing letters by hand and use pigeon delivery?
Here are some easy actions you can take instead:
Recycle your old tech: Many recycling schemes now offer free collection.
Use trade-in programmes when upgrading your phone.
Check for eco-friendly designs before buying new, such as modular phones or those using recycled materials.
Don't forget the small stuff: charging cables, adapters, earphones and other small electronics are e-waste too. If they no longer work, don't put them in the general bin - return them through an appropriate e-waste collection or take-back scheme.
Knowing what is in mobile phones helps us understand the environmental cost of our tech, and how our choices can help shift the system.
Inside your phone are:
62 metals
Several critical raw materials
Elements that are non-renewable, toxic to extract, and vital to digital life
The exact materials and quantities vary between phone models, but even a small device can contain a surprisingly wide range of metals and other materials.
By keeping your phone longer, recycling it properly, and choosing brands that take sustainability seriously, you’re making a real impact. You don’t need to give up your phone, just give it a longer life.
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