Your old cellphone is destroying the Earth

[bemildred]

Governments from around the world will meet next week to tackle the latest toxic waste crisis - cellphones. The handsets are packed with dangerous chemicals and metals that can endanger people and the environment once they have been thrown away.

Developing countries complain that they are being dumped on them, contaminating whole communities.

Users trade up to a new handset on average every 18 months meaning about 105 million handsets are discarded annually in Europe and 130 million in the United States .

Tests by American environmental protection agencies found that the cadmium in a single battery could contaminate 600 000 litres of water, a third of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.


IOL

[LTR]

1. Are there cell phone recycling programs?

Similar to programs for PC recycling?

Only advantage is that old PC'c can often be refurbished and recycled, or donated to the needy. Who wants an old cellphone?

[kokomo]

2. Best Buy has recycle bins in lobbies for old cell phones, Cd batteries

[Maeve]

3. Who wants an old cellphone? Women's shelters

Many collect old phones and have them set to call 911 only--then hand them to women who are in bad situations but aren't able to leave yet.

[AndyTiedye]

4. What Cadmium? Batteries are NiMH or LiIon

I don't think even my oldest phone had nicads.
I guess some of the old brick and bag phones might have had.

I never throw the old phones out anyway.
Working unactivated phones can still make emergency calls.
Dead phones can be salvaged for parts for various projects.

NiCds should be recycled, of course. That is mandatory in some
places. I thought that was supposed to prevent cadmium from
getting into the environment. So how is it getting dumped on
the third world?

[MISSDem]

5. Why do we need a cell phone to start with? I haven't

used mine 5 times in the 15 years I've had one.

[BigDaddyCaine]

6. i use mine every day

[ott]

7. COLLECTIVE GOOD!

http://www.collectivegood.com

Please recycle your old phones.