Recycling your cell phone - for people and planet
In some states, it's illegal to dump your cell phone in the bin.. and for very good reason.
I still remember my first cell phone - a Sony Ericsson brick. I was ultra cool at the time because not many folks in my town had one. That was only in the mid-90's. How things have changed.
Just about everyone has a cell phone now. I hate the damned things 90% of the time and I often wonder how we seemingly got by pretty well without them. Since my first phone, I've only had 2 new phones - the rest are hand-me-downs from family members. I may not be ultra-cool or hip anymore, but I'm never with a phone ... or 3.
The average lifespan of a phone in the USA is 18 months. They don't stop working (I still use one from 2001 at times); people simply want the latest and greatest and gotta have features that marketers convince us we must have. Our new, top of line phone that we pay $xxx for is relatively worthless in a very short time; so the phones are often stashed away or thrown out with the household rubbish.
While the cell phone industry has created a lot of jobs, the level of consumption has also created a toxic nightmare. It's estimated there are over half a billion used cell phones in the US - both tucke away or in landfills. Around 130 million will be added to that number in the next 12 months.
Some of the toxins your phone may include:
- Lead
- Mercury
- Arsenic
- Cadmium
- Brominated compounds
- Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
- Antimony
- Beryllium
- Barium
- Selenium
- Chromium
When disposed of in landfill, these chemicals leach into the soil and ground water. Many of the toxic compounds in cell phones are persistent and bioaccumulative. They build up in the fatty tissues of creatures, and then are concentrated at the top of the food chain - animal predators.. and humans.
Cell phone recycling is easy
There's so many recycling options now for cell phones in most countries. The phones are either:
repurposed - e.g. given to charities
refurbished - spruced up and then resold, often to people in poorer countries who can't afford the latest models
recycled - precious metals, plastics etc. extracted.
Finding a method of recycling that suits you is as easy as going to your favorite search engine and typing
location cell phone recycling
or
location mobile phone recycling
.. where location is your town or state. Often organizations will send you a prepaid envelope to put your phone in, so it's very convenient. Some recycling and refurbishing companies will even pay you a small amount of cash for your phone!
Perhaps you could do a cell phone drive in your street, school or club? It can be a good fundraising exercise!
There's gold in them thar phones!
Here's an interesting factoid. According to the Sumitomo Corporation of Japan; 230 grams of gold can be recovered from 1 ton of old cell phones; yet 1 ton of mining waste only generates 62 grams of gold. At today's gold price, one ton of phones has approximately USD$6000 worth of gold in it; but extracting the gold yourself isn't something you'd want to try yourself - it's a dangerous proces.
Recycling your cell phone makes sense on so many levels - from environmental, health, financial and right through to humanitarian benefits.
Recycling Disposable or Rechargeable Batteries
http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/12/1/Recycling-disposable-or-rechargeable-batteries.html
By Green Living Tips
Published on 11/18/2006
With so many disposable and rechargeable batteries around and given that even rechargeables don't last forever; these items pose a significant risk to the environment.
Recycling batteries
Every year we throw away nearly 40 billion disposable batteries collectively.
The U.S. Environmental Protection agency says that in excess of 350 million rechargeable batteries are bought annually in the USA. While Rechargeable batteries have up to 32 times less impact on the environment than disposable alkaline batteries and they have a long life, when they do reach the end of their service life, they present a huge environmental hazard.
Batteries of all sorts, both rechargeable and single use, are self contained toxic-waste dumps. Some of heavy metals include nickel cadmium, alkaline, mercury, lithium, zinc, nickel metal hydride and lead acid. Some of these elements are cumulative toxins; i.e., they build in in the tissues of living organisms until reaching toxic levels. For example, a mollusc may have a small amount of mercury in its system, but if all the other molluscs in the area have the same, when predators consume them they wind up with a mega-dose.
It's important that when your rechargeable batteries reach the end of their life, they are disposed of properly and not wind up in landfill.
Recycling electronic equipment
http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/13/1/Recycling-electronic-equipment.html
By Green Living Tips
Published on 11/18/2006
Once the electronics you own outlive their usefulness for your home or business, they should be considered an environmental risk and dealt with accordingly.
Electronics need to be recycled
Go to any garbage dump and you're likely to see computer monitors, printers, stereos, tvs etc. popping up everywhere. Not only do these products take up landfill space, electronic circuitboard componentry and casings contain all sorts of environmentally hazardous materials.
Before purchasing electronic gizmos and gadgets, consider the following environmental hazards that go into their production and ask yourself - do you really need it?:
- Fumes from ammonia and acids
- CFCs, or chloroflouro carbons
- acid and alkaline solutions
- copper baths
- catalysts
- etchants
- aqueous metals
- plating baths
- metals, including nickel, silver, copper, lead
.. that's not to mention the electricity consumed in their production, nor the oil used to make the plastics and transport the goods.
The electronics industry also uses tetrabromobisophenol-A (TBBA). It's a compound to help make circuitboards fire resistant. A harmful byproduct of TTBA is Methyl bromide - a pesticide, acute toxin and ozone depleting substance.
Once electronic equipment has outlived it purpose, contact your local council for options for responsible disposal. Many councils can point you to a recycling program. If the equipment is still serviceable, rather than dumping it, also consider Freecycling the items.
Yet another option is to inquire with the manufacturer if they have a recycling program - a word of warning though; some companies' recycling programs simply mean that they dump the items in developing countries in massive landfills where impoverished people are then paid a pittance to strip out useful components - without adequate training or protection.
Do you have electronic equipment recycling tips? We'd love to hear them; please add your comments below :)
