[Animats]

PC recycling and repair is alive and well in the US. The SF Bay Area has the Computer Repair Center.[1] In Shenzhen, as was discussed on here, there's an active phone recycling culture, with people doing chip-level replacement on iPhones.

PC recycling was easier in the desktop era, where you could take a pile of discarded PCs and swap around boards, hard drives, cases, and power supplies until you had something that worked. All you really needed was a screwdriver. Laptops are tougher, but still repairable without too many special tools and training.

Mobile phone repair takes special skills, training, equpment, and parts, all of which are available.[2] Third-party iPhone parts are available. I'm amazed that people are doing SMD board rework in small repair shops, but they are.

[1] http://www.crc.org/ [2] https://stsparts.us/