5 ms·

Probably about half a suburban town’s worth of iPhones.

• missedthecue 6y ago
  But all the components of an iPhone can technically be recycled to one degree or another (even if they aren't at present). Once a satellite has been incinerated, that's it. And there will be thousands of these, and several providers. That's thousands and thousands of pounds of material disappearing for good, every year.
  • adgjlsfhk1 6y ago
    Not really. You know what happens when a satellite burns up in the atmosphere? Hint: It's not a nuclear reaction. All the components end up back on earth (just vaporized and oxidized).
    • missedthecue 6y ago
      Vaporized and unreclaimable are the same thing here
  • jiofih 6y ago
    Right. I did a bit of research and 1. very little rare earth materials are actually used. 80%+ are in magnets / motors, a good chunk in screens and sensors 2. solar panels might have cadmium/silver which despite the name are not rare at all 440g is the average amount used in a modern car. Let’s extrapolate to 1Kg for a satellite. Earth has an estimated 120 million metric tons of rare earth deposits. If you start burning ten thousand of those satellites every year, it will take twelve million years to go through the stock.