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Discarded Cell Phones
psychictv points to a NYT story about discarded cell phones as an environmental hazard. The study mentioned in the article is available online. Every year or so we run a story on paper, disposable cell phones but even these would generate a fair amount of waste.
It's nice to know that we have an overproduction/disposal problem with cell phones, but aren't the pounds and pounds of lead in monitors and cases much more of a hazard?
Why, o why must the sky fall when I've learned to fly?
I have 3 used cell phones sitting at home. Why? Everytime I have changed service providers I was REQUIRED to buy a new phone. In fact the phone I actively use now it the exact same model as my previous phone. My current provider said it was "not possible" to reprogram the phone to work on their network. He had no answer as to how the charities are able to reprogram them for battered women's shelters.
Until the providers allow cell phones to change networks, the useless ones will keep piling up!
Sign me "Peeved at the artificial waste!"
Over the years, the wireless phone industry has developed a culture of disposability. This is not simply the latest phone fashions or the newest technology. It is also a question of design and manufacturing.
Wireless phone makers design their products with the idea that they won't last more than a year or so. Is it any wonder that we're hearing about environmental issues with that sort of disposable attitude?
If the wireless companies are going to sell phones that won't work with any other service provider, it should be their problem when all these crippled phones end up in landfills.
314-15-9265
In the US, each provider insists on having their own network and poviding their own phones. This severely aggravates the problem, since, as another person pointed out, people get a new phone every time they switch plans/providers. I've gone through 3 phones in 2 years, while I would have been happy keeping the first one. This is less of an issue in Europe (At least in the Netherlands) where providers use standard phones that accept a small SIM-card with the relevant data on it. When you switch providers, just slide the new SIM-card into your old phone and you're all set. When you want to upgrade, slide your SIM-card in a new phone and you're set.
He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
These people get paid to find problems, whether they are significant or not. If you think cellphones are a significant problem, I dare you to go to a landfill sometime and try to find just one cellphone.
Nor are the chemicals in them a significant danger. Computer monitors, yes, contain a lot of lead. But all these other stories about the dangers of electronic waste are bullshit scare stories.