Text 17. Essential “Green” Metals are being Thrown Away

Active Vocabulary:

cellhpone	мобільний телефон	solar cell	сонячна батарея
recycling	вторинна переробка	crucial	вирішальний, критичний
UN (United Nations)	Організація об’єднаних націй	decade	десятиріччя
rare	рідкісний	rely (on)	залежати (від)
essential	важливий	hoarding	накопичення
gadget	пристрій; технічна новинка	to update	модернізувати

That old cellphone gathering dust in your cupboard could help the economy go green, if only you could get round to recycling it. A UN report published last week says that too many of the rare metals that are essential for green technologies are locked up in old gadgets we throw away or forget about.

The report, from the United Nations Environment Programme, examined the recycling rates of 60 metals. Globally, 34 of them have recycling rates below 1 per cent, while only 18 have rates above 50 per cent. Among the least-recycled metals are tellurium and gallium – which are used in solar cells – and lithium, a key component of the batteries in electric cars – which is also found in cellphone batteries.

These metals are not yet in heavy use, but will be crucial over the next few decades. While we are unlikely to run out of them in the near future, recycling those already in use is less energy-intensive than mining, offering a way to make the green technologies that rely on the metals even greener.

“Most metals can be used over and over again,” says leading author Thomas Graedel of Yale University. But this doesn’t happen, partly because electronic devices are not designed with recycling in mind, and partly because people hang onto their old gadgets for years. This hoarding mentality may be influenced by privacy concerns associated with selling or recycling old electronics that store personal information.

Part of the solution is to collect more metals for recycling, but Graedel says we also need to update our recycling technology. At the moment, about 70 per cent of the metal sent for recycling gets lost during the process.

Speech Patterns

I will	get round to	it.	Я якось займусь цим.
I can never		see her.	Я ніяк не можу вибратись побачитись з нею.
Let us		facts.	Давайте перейдемо до фактів.

He is	likely	to come to the lesson.	Скоріш за все, він прийде на заняття.
	unlikely		Скоріш за все, він не прийде на заняття.

І. Decide which of these statements are true and which are false.

1. UN specialists discovered that some rare metals are thrown away together with food wastes. 2. Gallium is used in producing electric car batteries. 3. Cellphone batteries contain Lithium. 4. During the recycling process, about 50 per cent of rare metals are lost.

ІІ. Answer the following questions.

1. What technologies use most of rare metals? 2. What investigation concerning rare metals was made under the United Nations Environment Programme? 3. Why aren’t rare metals recycled on a large scale?