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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.
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!
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.
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
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
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.
Well not quite. A computer and a VCR aren't designed to transmit data wirelessly so there's stuff a cell phone has that a computer doesn't (I'm sure this stuff is pretty hazardous too, I would look it up but I don't feel like opening the PDF's now.) Besides, how many computer's did you buy last year? How many did you throw out? A cell phone you carry around, it gets lost, dropped, stolen, whatever, and you can't upgrade it. A computer you can keep for a long time, VCR even longer.
My sister had 3 cell phones last year (one was a pre paid phone she decided she didn't want anymore, another she dropped into a creek and had to buy a new one, the third one she still uses.) My parent's bought a cell phone in 1990, they stopped using it that same year because it was way to expensive (back then they weren't the cheapest things to own.) Now they have 2, people go through cell phones like they were handing them out on the street. Just the other day I saw an ad for a cell phone, you sign up for whatever amount of time and you get a free phone. Anyway, cell phone's are really cheap now, people get them replaced all the time just because they don't like the shape, color, whatever.
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.
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!
in the future? i thought women have always been like this.
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.