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Discarded Cell Phones

Posted by michael on from the nokias-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see dept.

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.

3 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Providers partly at fault by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!"

  2. Blame the wireless companies by Eric+Seppanen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    314-15-9265
  3. The key paragraph by NearlyHeadless · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That is starting to add up to a huge amount of waste, says Inform, an environmental organization that issued a report this year on old phones.The Environmental Protection Agency helped finance the study.

    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.