Missing signal: Unlocking a circular economy for mobile phones in North America

In Canada, Mexico, and the United States today, most mobile phones are given a second life. Roughly 50–70% of them return to use through repairrepairOperation by which a faulty or broken product or component is returned back to a usable state to fulfil its intended use., refurbishment, resale, or simply as gifts to family members and friends. Sooner or later, however, nearly all of the material in those phones — namely 63 elements including copper and cobalt — ends up in waste streams or shipping containers bound for other regions. By 2040, end-of-life mobile phones could contain an estimated USD 2.2 billion worth of recoverable critical minerals.

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The Foundation’s latest report, published with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Missing Signal traces this complex life cycle and how policy and industry have been shaping it across the region, revealing where circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. strategies could yield the greatest gains.

POINT 1

Upstream: Product design and business models set the ceiling on how long mobile phones stay in use

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POINT 1

Designing phones for longevity, repair, and non-destructive disassembly can keep them and their parts circulating at their highest feasible value. Repairability requirements, longer software support, and circular procurement standards can reinforce these choices, while business models centring resale, leasing, and maintenance can generate new revenue beyond the one-time purchase.

POINT 2

Midstream: More take-back options and data transparency can keep functional mobile phones in circulation

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POINT 2

Making phones easy and economic to return can bring them out of storage and into repair, refurbishment, and resale. Greater investment in collection and reverse logistics can expand and accelerate these pathways, while trusted data wiping standards and consistent grading and documentation can help them move with greater certainty.

POINT 3

Downstream: At scale, collection and processing infrastructure can tap one of the most widely distributed reservoirs of high-value materials in the economy today

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POINT 3

When reuse is no longer possible, policy and investment can help scale primary and secondary processing capacity so that the materials in phones can circulate back into manufacturing supply chains. Procurement, incentives, and long-term purchasing commitments can strengthen demand for those materials, helping recovery systems reach economically viable scale.

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For policymakers and industry leaders, action across these stages could keep phones in use longer, expand repair and refurbishment markets, and recover more materials for regional supply. For consumers, this could mean more durable, affordable phones that are easier and cheaper to repair. For businesses, it could create revenue beyond the first sale. And for North America, it could reduce reliance on virgin mining and volatile global supply chains while moving the region closer to eliminating waste and pollution.