Slashdot Mirror
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.
I feed them to my personal Robot Rosie. She also enjoys PDA, Cogs and Sprockets.
Doesn't anyone these days enjoy a good Jetson References. DAMN KIDS these days!
There certainly should be some sort of profit in recycling them, especially in the surface mount packages.
I can see the fnords!
After all, they're made from the same stuff as your computer or your VCR. If other electronic devices, made from the same component parts, pose an environmental hazard, why is it a surprise when cellphones follow the same pattern?
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
A group called Collective Good will take your cell phones and recycle them. Not only do developing nations get phones, but the people who refurbish them are trained. An interview with Seth Heine the founder of the group, explains a little more.
It's a way to give back that doesn't hurt you or cost you anything.
I know that at here you can donate to womens shelters for use as emergency 911 phones, they don't need to have service to call 911.
*narf!*
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?
After moving 3 states away from my coverage, I learned of a thing called "roaming"... learned it to the tune of 350 bucks... I disposed my cell phone by testing out gravity from the second story of my apartment complex... I'd like to state, as of last August at least, Gravity Still Works.
Humor folks, enjoy it. =)
(and for all you trolls who are going to flame me for "not know what roaming is" there were other factors not the least of which is phone companies suck alot, monopolistic bastards, and yes, I was aware I was roaming, there was simply no other choice for about 3 months...)
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
As the article mentions, there are a number of charities that will accept used cellphone donations. One of the largest is the "Donate a Phone CALL to PROTECT" program that Motorola runs (they accept any model of phone, not just Motorolas). Phones are either refurbished and then distributed to domestic violence victims, or sold, and the proceeds go to domestic violence prevention programs. More information is available at: http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/12give/index2.cf m
dunno about the rest of the country/world, but around here (Washington DC) you can drop your old cell phone off at many local police stations. the phones are then given to a group who recondition and reprogram them to dial only 911 (the emergency police number) and are given to women who are victims of domestic violence.
I don't understand why so many people are tossing out their old cellphones in the first place?
Every old cellphone I've ever owned, I was able to resell for at least $15 on eBay. (Often times, for much more than that!)
People who don't want to be locked into 1 or 2 year long contracts often buy your "useless" old cellphones, so they can keep them in their vehicles as spares for emergencies.
CollectiveGood is the mobile phone recycling resource. If you have a spare mobile phone sitting on a shelf or in a drawer, you can recycle it here in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. At CollectiveGood, you can:
Preserve the environment by keeping your used mobile phone out of a landfill, and by recycling it back into reuse
Be rewarded for your good deed with a thank you letter and tax-deduction for your in-kind donation to a charity
Think mobile phone recycling is a good idea? Share it!
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
They're advertizing $50-$100 off a new phone if you trade in an old one.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Aren't cell phones dangerous enough when being USED? As if car accidents and brian cancer weren't enough, now we learn they kill the environment, too.
They make cell phones out of PAPER
Thinking you'd free the landfills up from what phones are normall made of, you just end up adding to the paper waste.
At least you can burn paper.
Every year or so we run a story on paper, disposable cell phones but even these would generate a fair amount of waste.
Not to mention the dangerous buildup of bogonium that would result in the disposal sites.
Weren't the prototype phones always found to be disguised Nokia hardware? Hasn't the company producing these paper phones been denounced as a fraud every time this story comes up?
There are already organizations that will safely recycle (or even better, refurbish for lower incomes) your old computers (http://www.accrc.org comes to mind for those in cali, us).
There are organizations which will also take your old cellphones. Earth911 (http://www.earth911.org) will use it as a free emergency phone, and the rbrc will take the batteries (http://www.rbrc.org/consumer/).
IMHO, the idea of sending these used cellphones to underprivleged nations doesn't wash, unless you are willing to include some infrastructure with them:)
"Moving through the masses like a fish through water." syrup
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!"
This is even more distressing when one considers that the capacitors in these discarded cellphones are made of an element (tantalum) with an incredibly high cost of extraction in terms of human suffering. The mining of Ta has exacerbated a war in the Congo (which has over 80% of the world's Ta reserves) that has killed more than three million people. See for example What is Coltan? A google search for coltan congo cell phones turns up more.
See this article..
Suddenly, seeing one of those "wireless communications make people happier" commercials shortly before seeing one of those "Marijuana funds terrorism" infomercials has become more ironic.
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
Steve cancer is no picnic either.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
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?
This may be a simple case of equating new technology with waste, as opponents are apt to do. The truth is, we generate waste everywhere, doing everything.. I don't know of any effect from the waste that will cause governments to mandate producing less or recycling more. The US population seems to put up with any quality of air or water given them.
Eventually, someone must propose money-based incentives for production using waste materials. This is the only way to bootstrap such commerce. We had the aluminum can/glass/motor oil progress 20 years ago. It may be time for more, but who's picking up the bill?
Throw the phones in the garbage and solve the garbage problem.
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
http://www.wirelessfoundation.org/12give/index2.cf m
Donated Phones are Tax Deductible!
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.
Unwanted mobile phones are still valuable they contain precious metals such as silver (Ag), gold (Au) and Palladium (Pd), as well as copper (Cu) and plastics that can be recycled
There are actually plenty of companies making money, if not fortune, by ripping of valuable materials from the old phones - here's one. They are for now atleast a gold - and a silver mine. I quess you will find out this in US as well, as your mobile phone penetration goes high enough for this "mining business" to turn valuable - they need masses of cell phones for it to be profitable.
It seems to me that companies should be required to take back certain forms of consumer waste that needs to be disposed of properly. A good example of this is used motor oil, in Minnesota service stations et al are required to accept used motor oil from anyone who feels like giving it to them, on the justification that people would be dumping it in their back yards otherwise.
AFAIK within the next few years the EU will be requiring that all automobile manufacturers assume the cost of recycling/destroying all of their cars sold, when they are no longer driveable... So i think the idea is already around, but just needs a more broad implementation.
To me it seems obvious: if you want to sell something that carries an intrinsic burdon upon the environment/society/etc later on, then you should build the cost of safely getting rid of it into your business plan, and this should be required whether old parts are actually useful or not, and this should apply whether you're an electricity plant or a computer manufacturer.
-tid242
With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science. --Carl Sagan
My girlfriend is looking at a new phone this year, and her current phone will go to a battered women's group. They give the phones to battered women so they can call 911 if the need arises. All phones are supposed to have 911 access even if there isn't any active account with a provider.
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.
I donate my old phones to the poor starving kids of the world.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
That future might suck. For example: You finally meet the girl of your dreams. She's smart, funny, beautiful, available, and she digs you. She's perfect in every way -- except that she's been wired for an incompatible communications protocol.
Bummer.
I've worked as an engineer for cellular (an/dig/PCS/GSM etc.) providers for about 13 years now and stood around many a water cooler chatting with the marketing people.
They have two basic reasons for not wanting your old phone.
1. Sometimes, unbeknownst to you, the reason you had a crappy experience with your other service provider was the phone. This is not a profitable fact to advertise. It is more profitable to claim, "Yes, the other guys suck" and here's proof. You get a new phone and better reception and are convinced the other guys weren't as good, and you tell all your friends. The other problem is with letting you convert a possibly (but unlikely) bad phone is that the problem doesn't go away, and again, the user becomes aware that the old provider had just as good a service.
2. Most providers want to spend as little as possible on sales staff. This means a minimum of training. The simplest solution is to give them a box'o'phones, that all work alike, and train them for two or three different models. Better still is to preprogram the phone with numbers that are in the system, but "suspended." This way, without any knowledge of cell phones at all they can get you to sign a contract, take your money, call the customer care department to have the phone "unsuspended." And Voila! Sales without training.
Unless you change system types (Cell to PCS, PCS to GSM etc.) your phone would work just fine. GSM providers (T-Mobile, Cingular and the like) don't have this hassle since most of the programming is in the removable SIM. With those systems they will charge you a $10-$20 new sim fee and you can slip it into your old GSM phone and keep using all the headsets, batteries, chargers, covers and other stuff you purchased. That is assuming you can put up with their typically lousy rural coverage.
Or in your tooth.
I can see the fnords!
Have you thought about spending a little more and getting better quality? I've had a Motorola startac 7868 for over 18 months now and the only problem was that I cracked the antenna and it cost $10 to get it fixed on the spot.
It cost me $150 for the phone back in early 2001, but it seems it's about the same price as all of the phones that you've owned.
seems redundant...
Goodwill Industries will take your phone.
in the future? i thought women have always been like this.
Lately it's been in the news that polar bears are showing up hermaphroditic due to being at top top of the food chain at the top of the world. It's also reported that the melting polar ice cap may make polar bears extinct. So there's really no need to worry about the hermaphroditic thing, see? Doubtless Nature has a similar plan to take care of the discarded cell phone "problem."
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
One thing you can do is donate your old cell phone. I believe battered women's shelters and/or the YWCA take old cell phones whose service has been cancelled. These organizations give the cell phones to woman who can use them if they need to call 911. 911 will still work on any cell phone, even if the service has been cancelled.
This is much better than throwing one away and it is tax deductable.
We should send all our old cell phones to the Middle East. Cell phones and the Internet have been big heros in the last couple international turmoils. (Remember 9/11?) With the US preparing to topple the Iraqi government, which will destabilize Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and many other nearby countries, we're sure to have a bunch of turmoil coming up. Give the people cell phones, and the resulting politics are likely to be a bit more sane.
Any way to rewire them to the same frequency and use the throw-aways as free walkie-talkie's?